A pink goodbye to Anna Nicole Smith

By Ben Fox Associated Press found at http://www.indystar.com

NASSAU, Bahamas -- Anna Nicole Smith, her coffin covered with a rhinestone-studded blanket and her portrait on the church altar, was mourned Friday during a funeral service before a white hearse took her body to the cemetery.

The mahogany coffin was carried into the white-columned Mount Horeb Baptist Church, as hundreds of tourists and fans watched from behind steel barricades. Some in the crowd cried out, "Anna! Anna! We love you!"

Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, arrived in a white stretch limo. She wore a black dress and waved to the cheering crowd.

 

Smith's casket was closed, and the pews were festooned with pink flowers, said Yvonne Gibson, one of the guests. There were fewer than 100 guests, even though an organizer said about 300 -- including an "Entertainment Tonight" camera crew -- had been invited.

The TV program reported on its Web site that guitarist Slash was among the guests, and country singer Joe Nichols had been expected to sing two songs requested by Smith's boyfriend, Howard K. Stern: "I'll Wait for You" and Dolly Parton's "On the Wings of a Dove."

Smith's body was then taken to Lakeview Memorial Gardens for a private burial, said Richard Milstein, the court-appointed advocate for Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn.

Arthur was booed at the cemetery. The guests disappeared under a green tent covering the gravesite. Smith was being buried in a tiara and custom-made beaded gown, said organizer Patrik Simpson.

Smith's grave is next to that of her son, Daniel, who died at age 20 in September of an apparent drug overdose. "Entertainment Tonight" said Smith would be also buried with an urn containing some of the ashes of her late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

"She's got a presidential kind of media frenzy going on," said tourist Christie Rathgaber, 59, a nurse from Columbus, Ohio, who happened by the scene while waiting for nearby shops to open. "I'm just incredulous at all the fuss. She was not a world figure. She was not a queen. She was not a president. She was not anything. . . . It's just way over the top."

The legal wrangling that began with Smith's unexpected death at age 39 won't end with the funeral: There is pending legal action on the custody of Smith's daughter, who stands to inherit a fortune, and on ownership of a Bahamas mansion Smith used to establish residency in the islands last year.

Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward County, Fla., medical examiner, said he will announce Smith's cause of death next week. "This was a complex case," Perper said. "It was an unusual case from a medical point of view."

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