Did anyone else notice the irony that the biggest news story on Valentine’s Day was the death of Anna Nicole Smith? Think about it. The top news story during the week of Valentine’s Day was about the death of one of the world’s most famous playboy bunnies. At least I find it ironic that a woman so well known for being sexy was also a lonely person.

She was born Vickie Lynn Marshall in 1967. Her parents divorced two years later. Her mom married four more times after that. She never graduated from high school and was married at the age of 17 to Billy Smith, a cook at Jim’s Krispy Chicken in Mexia, Texas. That lasted about two years. Her next job as a nightclub stripper led her to an encounter with a guy named J. Howard Marshall, an elderly Texas billionaire. They soon were engaged and married. I can imagine that was a tremendous change in lifestyle – for both of them! He died about a year later. Since his death in 1995, she had been in the courts trying to get her fair share of his estate. The news on that deal became so confusing to me that I just skipped to the next paragraph (See Wikipedia for more information). It seems that lawsuits became her career. She was embroiled in one after another. And now that she is dead, what do we find happening? More lawsuits.

Like many celebrities today, her main “talent” was her looks. It was not acting skills or musical abilities that pushed her into the spotlight. It was simply her willingness to display her body in outfits best described as “little or nothing” that made Anna Nicole famous. The irony of it all was the fact that though she was so attractive, she also had a less attractive side. Here was a wonderful person so lost and afraid that she was unable to be a part of a long-term relationship with anyone. I am sure there is some psychiatric diagnosis for her character, but the best I can describe Anna Nicole is the term – Physically attractive, but relationally rejected.

Valentine’s Day for Anna Nicole? Probably not. Apparently, she never found the love of her life. While it is a tragedy that she died so young, the deeper tragedy is that she died so empty. Her life is another example that the real beauty of a person lies deep inside. And sometimes it just takes a little more effort to discover it. I wonder if anyone ever bothered to discover Anna Nicole’s real beauty.