Anna Nicole Smith finally laid to rest in the Bahamas
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| Published on Saturday, March 3, 2007 |
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By Bob Sullivan
NASSAU, Bahamas (AFP): Former Playboy model and billionaire's widow Anna Nicole Smith was finally laid to rest at a pink-splashed funeral in the Bahamas Friday, following three weeks of legal battles over her body.
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| A motorcade carries the coffin of Anna Nicole Smith as it leaves the Bahamas church as the former Playboy model headed to her final resting three weeks after her death. AFP PHOTO |
Pallbearers carried the pink-draped coffin over a red carpet into a flower-festooned church for a ceremony attended by some 300 invited guests.
Later, a crowd of Bahamians sang hymns as the hearse entered a Nassau cemetery where green tents provided privacy to the few dozen mourners allowed at the graveside, and police, smartly clad in white tunics and pith helmets, ensured everyone else stayed out.
The private ceremonies followed bitter legal battles over custody of the body that in life had won Smith Playboy fame and a marriage to an 89-year-old billionaire.
A throng of Bahamians, tourists and media crushed behind police barriers as the white coffin was carried into the Mount Horeb Baptist Cathedral in Nassau.
The church was reportedly filled with pink roses, and sources close to the funeral said Smith's body was clad in a beaded gown and tiara.
The mourners include Smith's estranged mother Virgie Arthur, her longtime companion Howard K. Stern and former boyfriend Larry Birkhead.
The body was flown to the Bahamas on a private plane early Friday, after courts in south Florida gave the go-ahead for the burial.
Arthur wanted her daughter to be buried in her native Texas but Stern insisted the late model had expressed the desire to be put to rest alongside her son, who died in the Bahamas in September at the age of 20.
A Florida appeals court on Wednesday upheld a ruling that favored a Bahamas burial.
"This she chose as her final resting place," said Florida lawyer Richard Millstein, who was given custody of the body after a court appointed him to represent the interests of Smith's five-month-old daughter in the legal dispute.
"Today we share our grief with all of you," he said.
Speaking to the crowd outside the church, Millstein asked the media to respect the decorum of the occasion so Smith could finally have a dignified burial.
The battle over Smith's body stirred a major media frenzy and inspired some headlines in questionable taste. Splashed on the New York Post's front page on Friday were the words: "Ice Queen: tiara for thawing Anna Nicole."
The legal wrangling over her remains, and over paternity of her five-month-old daughter, was as controversial as the life of Smith, a buxom blonde Playboy model who fought for the estate of her wheelchair-bound oil magnate husband, and later starred in an often bizarre TV reality show.
Last week, a Florida judge known for his oddball courtroom remarks, broke into tears as he rendered his ruling in favor of a Bahamas burial.
Among those present at the hearing was Birkhead, who is fighting Stern over paternity of Smith's daughter Dannielynn.
Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband Frederic van Anhalt has also filed a lawsuit claiming he fathered the little girl.
Daniellyn could eventually inherit hundreds of millions of dollars depending on the outcome of an ongoing battle for the estate of the oil magnate Smith married when she was 26.
Authorities in Florida have yet to disclose what caused Smith to pass out and die in a Florida hotel room on February 8, at the age of 39.
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