In 1962, Norma Jean Mortensen passed away from a drug overdose. More famously known as Marilyn Monroe, her sudden death in her mid-30s caused such a reaction that even a 15-year-old Reginald Dwight later wrote one of his most famous songs in her memory. That song, “Candle in the Wind” defined Sir Elton John, as Dwight is now known, and his career ever since.

While I doubt many will be pleased with the comparison, I’ve always seen the late Anna Nicole Smith as the Marilyn to my Reginald. For a testosterone-charged teenager, she was the centrepiece of my puberty and the person who would define “sex symbol” for me. Her appearances in Guess? advertisements just never quite left me the same.

But the truth is, I always believed (and I’m glad that initial obituaries echo my sentiments) that Anna Nicole Smith was ultimately, human. Born Vickie Lynn Hogan, she was a simple Texan girl who just had to endure one kind of pressure after another. That’s what made her so appealing, because through all the glamour and the celebrity, here was a person who just had to live day by day with what little she could give. I believe that when her son, the one person that was truly meaningful in her world was lost, she was just overcome with such grief that life itself became a shell. The irony, of course, is that her 5 month old daughter carries the name ‘Hope’.

To Anna Nicole Smith… Vickie Lynn Hogan… a woman who will always be larger than life, yet fragile and real, at the same time… rest in peace.

Anna Nicole Smith 1967 - 2007