Sad and almost surreal. RIP Anna.
Anna Nicole Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Houston, Texas, on Nov. 27, 1968.
As a teenager, she worked at a fried chicken restaurant, and married Billy Smith at age 17 in 1985. The same year she had son Daniel Smith, but then divorced Billy and became a single mother in 1987.
Smith worked a string of minimum wage jobs before turning to stripping. She met oil mogul J. Howard Marshall II in 1991 in Houston at a nightclub, where he was a frequent patron and she worked as an exotic dancer.
Smith married Marshall, 63 years older than she, on June 27, 1994. She was 26, he was 89. The age difference sparked criticism and speculation, but Smith defended her marriage.
Smith claimed to be very close to the aging billionaire and that while they loved each other, they married for companionship and his desire to support her rather than the conventional husband and wife lifestyle.
When he died Aug. 4, 1995, Smith's fight with his son E. Pierce Marshall began for her share of the inheritance. She was accompanied by Howard’s other son, whom he’d disowned.
In 2002, she was awarded $88 million, but that was reversed on appeal in 2004 when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals deemed her not one of Marshall's heirs. The Supreme Court decided in 2005 to hear her appeal of that decision.
Her case reached the Supreme Court in February 2006 on the issue of the right of a federal judge to intervene in a state probate case.
Anna won unanimously in a 9-0 vote announced May 1, 2006. She has not won her share of the estate entirely, but rather won the right to fight for it in federal court per the majority opinion written by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The case is Marshall v. Marshall, 04-1544.
E. Pierce Marshall, however, died suddenly at the age of 67 due to an unspecified infection on June 20, 2006. The family has stated that they will continue to fight Anna's claims to the fortune.
Other than small roles in movies like "Naked Gun 33 1/3," Smith has appeared mostly in soft-core porn movies. In 2002, E! Entertainment television gave Smith her own reality show called "The Anna Nicole Show" in the spirit of "The Osbournes."