Smith’s mother drops fight against burial in Bahamas

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The wrangling over Anna Nicole Smith’s body appeared to end Wednesday when her mother’s lawyer said she would not stand in the way of the starlet’s burial in the Bahamas later this week.

Tom Pirtle said Wednesday night that Virgie Arthur would not challenge a Florida appeals court ruling Wednesday that cleared the way for the burial.

“It’s going to be difficult to appeal the ruling, so we’re not going to appeal,” Pirtle said.

Arthur had fought last week’s ruling from Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin that gave control of Smith’s body to an advocate for Smith’s 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn. Arthur had wanted to bury Smith in her home state of Texas,

But Smith’s boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, argued that she had wanted to be buried in the Bahamas next to her 20-year-old son, who died last year of apparent drug-related causes. The 4th District Court of Appeal agreed.

The trial court concluded that Smith’s “last ascertainable wish” was to be buried alongside her son. “This finding is not essentially disputed,” the appellate judges said in their ruling.

Smith’s body has been stored at a medical examiner’s office since shortly after she died Feb. 8 at 39. A cause of death has not been determined.

Lawyer Richard Milstein, the baby’s advocate, said in a statement Wednesday after the ruling that the funeral was set for Friday.

He declined to comment further, saying he wanted to “uphold the decorum and dignity that should be maintained throughout this process, for the sake of Dannielynn and the memories she will have of her mother’s funeral.”

Wayne Munroe, the Bahamian attorney for Smith’s estate, said Wednesday’s ruling by the Florida court was “common sense.”

“Everyone in this whole saga knows what her wishes were about every aspect of her affairs – custody, property, everything. But people are steadfastly trying to get their wishes met and not hers. Nobody seems to care about this woman’s wishes.”

It was not immediately clear when the body would be moved.

In Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, Judge Lawrence Korda ordered DNA samples from Smith’s body be turned over to attorneys for photographer Larry Birkhead, an ex-boyfriend of Smith’s. Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, also says he could be the father. But Korda said he had no jurisdiction to do anything further.