Hundreds Gather for Anna Nicole's Funeral

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Smith's Mother Reportedly Tried to Prevent Burial
By BEN FOX, AP
NASSAU, Bahamas (March 2) - Anna Nicole Smith was taken to her final resting place in a mahogany coffin draped in a rhinestone-studded pink blanket Friday, after a memorial service in a Bahamian church where hordes of onlookers shouted "Anna! Anna!"

Hundreds of islanders and tourists crowded behind steel barricades guarded by police outside the white-columned Mount Horeb Baptist Church, where a painting of Smith decorated the altar during the closed-casket ceremony, said Yvonne Gibson, one of the guests.

"Today we share our grief with all of you," said Richard Milstein, the court-appointed advocate for Smith's baby daughter, Dannielynn. "Today we come to you to carry out the final, most sacred, solemn act provided to any individual."

There appeared to be fewer than 100 guests overall at the church service, which was closed to all media but Entertainment Tonight. An organizer said about 300 had been invited to the private ceremony.





Later, Smith's body was taken in a white hearse to a humble ceremony, where some of the guests disappeared under a green tent that covered the gravesite amid tight security at Lakeview Memorial Gardens.

Some tourists were amazed at all the security and media.

"She's got a presidential kind of media frenzy going on," said Christie Rathgaber, a 59-year-old nurse from Columbus, Ohio who happened by the church. "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 5-month-old daughter, who stands to inherit a fortune, and on ownership of a Bahamas mansion Smith used to establish residency in the islands last year.

An official inquest into the mysterious death last September of Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, in the Bahamas is also pending.