Anna Nicole Smith

Anna Nicole SmithAnna Nicole Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Houston, Texas, on November 28, 1967. She was the daughter of Donald Eugene Hogan and Virgie Mae Tabers. Her early childhood was spent primarily in the small Texas town of Mexia after her parents separated. She was raised by her mother and extended family members and attended Mexia High School before leaving early and later earning her GED.

Billy Wayne Smith & Vickie Lynn with Daniel

At seventeen she married Billy Wayne Smith in 1985. The couple had one son, Daniel Wayne Smith, born in January 1986. The young family struggled financially and the marriage ended in divorce in 1993. Vickie returned to Houston where she worked in restaurants such as Jim’s Krispy Fried Chicken and Red Lobster before turning to modeling and dancing to support herself and her son.

While working at a Houston club in 1991 she posed for professional photographs that were sent to Playboy magazine. In March 1992 she appeared on the cover and was later chosen as Playboy’s Playmate of the Year for 1993. Around this time she adopted the stage name Anna Nicole Smith. Her career quickly expanded into mainstream modeling. She signed with Guess Jeans and also modeled for H&M, Lane Bryant, and other brands. Her glamorous image was often styled to echo her idol Marilyn Monroe and she became a recognizable pop culture figure throughout the 1990s.

Anna Nicole Smith in her Guess ad

Smith pursued acting and appeared in several feature films. She had a cameo in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and played a comedic role in Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994). Although her acting career was limited, her highly public persona attracted media attention and maintained her celebrity status.

Anna marrying J. Howard

In 1994 she married Texas oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall II, whom she had met while working as a dancer years earlier. Their marriage, given their sixty-three-year age difference, became national news. When Marshall died in 1995 she was drawn into a long legal battle over his estate. The dispute over inheritance lasted for more than a decade and eventually reached the United States Supreme Court in the case Marshall v. Marshall.

During the early 2000s she remained in the spotlight. From 2002 to 2004 she starred in her own reality television series The Anna Nicole Show on E! Entertainment Television. The program documented her personal and professional life and further increased public interest in her story.

Her personal life was often marked by deep challenges. On September 7, 2006, she gave birth to a daughter, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, in Nassau, Bahamas. Only three days later, on September 10, her twenty-year-old son Daniel died suddenly while visiting her in the hospital. His death, caused by an accidental drug overdose, left her devastated and struggling with grief.

On February 8, 2007, Anna Nicole Smith died at the age of thirty-nine in Hollywood, Florida. Her death was ruled an accidental overdose of prescription medications. She was buried at Lakeview Memorial Gardens and Mausoleums in Nassau, Bahamas, next to her son Daniel, fulfilling her wish to keep them together.