Mourners and camera crew attend Anna Nicole's funeral

One designer said the funeral would reflect the celebrity's personality.
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) -- The body of Anna Nicole Smith was carried into a Bahamian church Friday in a mahogany coffin covered by a rhinestone-studded pink blanket as hundreds of people gathered outside to mourn the former Playboy Playmate and reality TV star.
As police watched in front of steel barricades, the coffin was carried down a red carpet, lowered onto a cart and wheeled into the white-columned Mount Horeb Baptist Church, whose pews were festooned with pink roses. Onlookers cried out "Anna! Anna!"
Moments earlier, Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, arrived in a white stretch limousine with an entourage of about 10 people. She wore a black dress and waved to the cheering crowd outside. There appeared to be fewer than 100 guests overall, even though an organizer said about 300 -- including an "Entertainment Tonight" camera crew -- had been invited to the private ceremony.
Richard Milstein, the court-appointed advocate for Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, called for "respect and solemnity" for all those congregating outside, including a horde of reporters.
"Today we share our grief with all of you. ... Today we come to you to carry out the final, most sacred, solemn act provided to any individual," he said.
Gazing at the ranks of TV cameras and police dressed in crisp white or tan tunics with blue trousers, Christie Rathgaber, a tourist, was amazed.
"She's got a presidential kind of media frenzy going on," said the 59-year-old nurse from Columbus, Ohio, who happened by the scene while waiting for nearby shops to open. "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."
What will continue
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. And Smith's mother will likely try to get the body out of the Bahamas, said her lawyer, Tom Pirtle, without elaborating.
A private plane carrying Smith's body left Florida early Friday after authorities escorted a black hearse to Miami International Airport, with news helicopters tracking the procession from the medical examiner's office in Fort Lauderdale.
The church ceremony was closed to all but the invited guests. A smaller group was planned for the burial later Friday at Lakeview Memorial Gardens, Milstein said.
Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward medical examiner, said he will announce Smith's cause of death next week. She died Feb. 8 in a Florida hotel room.
"This was a complex case," Dr. Perper said. "It was an unusual case from a medical point of view."
Smith will be buried in a tiara and custom-made, beaded gown next to her son, said Patrik Simpson of Beverly Hills, Calif., who helped organize the memorial.
A reflection of Smith
Simpson's partner, Pol Atteu, has designed more than a dozen gowns for Smith, including the one in which she is to be buried, he said. Simpson declined to describe the dress, but said Wednesday the ceremony will reflect Smith's buoyant personality.
"It will be a very beautiful, Anna Nicole send-off," he said. "Of course it will be over the top because it's Anna Nicole."
Arthur, Smith's boyfriend Howard K. Stern and her ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead were each allowed to have 100 guests at memorial service, he said, and about 30 people are on the guest list for the burial.
Arthur had wanted to bury Smith in her native Texas, and fought last week's court ruling that gave control of the body to Milstein, who agreed with Stern that Smith wanted to be buried next to Daniel, who died of apparent drug-related causes last year.
Simpson said the coffin would likely be closed.
Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. The reality TV star and Playboy Playmate had been fighting his family over his estimated 500 million fortune since his death in 1995.
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