Anna Nicole: Waitress, TV host, mother

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HOLLYWOOD, Fla., Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Anna Nicole Smith, who died at 39 Thursday, began as a waitress in Texas and climbed to the upper level of wealth and glamour.

Along the way she was a Playboy Playmate of the Year and a reality TV star.

Smith, 39, was found unresponsive in her hotel room in Hollywood, Fla., Thursday and was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

While waitressing, Smith met and then married Billy Wayne Smith, with whom she had Daniel Wayne Smith. The couple divorced in 1993, the year she was named Playmate of the Year.

Smith raised eyebrows in 1994 when she married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall. He was 89 and she was 26 -- and when he died, a 12-year legal battle ensued over Smith's claim to his estate.

Smith's "The Anna Nicole Smith Show" reality show ran for two seasons.

On Sept. 7, Smith's daughter Dannielynn was born in the Bahamas. Her son, Daniel, died three days later while visiting her in the hospital.

Eighteen days after her son's death, Smith exchanged rings with her longtime attorney Howard K. Stern at a "commitment ceremony" in the Bahamas.

Dannielynn is the subject of a paternity suit.