EXCLUSIVE: ‘I was scared to death Dannielynn would be the next one dead.' Anna Nicole Smith's mother tells how she warned her daughter to 'be careful' after grandson's mysterious overdose - and shares rare photos of the former Playboy Playmate
- WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
- Anna Nicole Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, 65, spoke exclusively to DailyMail.com in a poignant interview on the 10th anniversary of her death
- ‘You could tell the difference between Anna Nicole and Vickie Lynn [her birth name]. Anna was very mean, I don’t know how to explain her. On drugs, she was a terrible person to be around,' Arthur said
- Anna Nicole met her first husband Billy Wayne Smith at a fried chicken shop as teenagers and had son Daniel
- When Daniel was six months old, Anna Nicole got tired of working a job at Red Lobster and got a stripping gig at the Executive Suite in Houston
- Arthur, then a cop, went over to the Executive Suite and 'Sure enough, there she was with her G-string on in some man’s face, dancing'
- Daniel died at age 20 from an overdose just three days after Smith gave birth to her second child, Dannielynn
- 'Danny did not do drugs but they found enough drugs in him to kill ten people,' says his grandmother
- Months later Smith overdosed in a hotel in Florida - see the VIDEO of Anna Nicole on a stretcher as paramedics tried to resusitate her below
- Now Arthur is begging to see her granddaughter more - and share with her memories and photos of her 'Vickie
Anna Nicole Smith’s mother warned her daughter to be wary of those around her, months before she overdosed on a cocktail of prescription drugs.
Virgie Arthur, 65, spoke exclusively to DailyMail.com in a poignant interview on the tenth anniversary of her daughter’s death. She recalled the wild antics of her ‘beautiful, funny’ child, who she calls by her birth name Vickie Lynn, and who she believes the world never really knew.
The grandmother broke down as she spoke of the devastating loss of Smith’s son, Daniel, who also died of a drug overdose five months before his mother.
The 20-year-old overdosed on drugs in Smith’s hospital room in the Bahamas while visiting after she had given birth to his half-sister, Dannielynn.
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![Virgie Arthur, 65, spoke exclusively to DailyMail.com in a poignant interview on the tenth anniversary of her daughter’s death. She recalled the wild antics of Anna Nicole, who she calls by her birth name Vickie Lynn, and who she believes the world never really knew](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03EB500000578-0-image-a-13_1486504930864.jpg)
Virgie Arthur, 65, spoke exclusively to DailyMail.com in a poignant interview on the tenth anniversary of her daughter’s death. She recalled the wild antics of Anna Nicole, who she calls by her birth name Vickie Lynn, and who she believes the world never really knew
![Arthur's last visit with her granddaughter Dannielynn - Smith's second and only surviving child was in 2010](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/14/3CF0934C00000578-4201590-Arthur_s_last_visit_with_granddaughter_Dannielynn_was_over_10_ye-m-3_1486565611579.jpg)
Arthur's last visit with her granddaughter Dannielynn - Smith's second and only surviving child was in 2010
Arthur remains suspicious about her grandson’s death and said it led her to warn her daughter about the entourage she had surrounded herself with.
‘I told Vickie Lynn, “Something has happened to Danny and you should be very careful about yourself,”’ Arthur told DailyMail.com.
‘It doesn’t seem right that a 20-year-old would die. Danny did not do drugs but they found enough drugs in him to kill ten people. So how does that happen?
‘If he had done drugs, you would see that on TV, it would be some news especially about her child. But you never saw that.’
Arthur finds it hard to believe that a decade has passed since both their deaths.
‘I’ll be crying all day,’ she said, speaking of of tenth anniversary of Anna Nicole's passing. ‘I cry on Danny’s death day and I cry on Vickie’s death day. It is very hard and it brings up such terrible, terrible memories of her death and what happened to her.
![Virgie Arthur smooches up granddaughter Dannielynn in 2010](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/17/3CF0928500000578-4201590-image-a-54_1486573312041.jpg)
Virgie Arthur smooches up granddaughter Dannielynn in 2010
‘She was very young, very beautiful and very funny when she was Vickie Lynn. People won’t know her as Vickie Lynn like we do. Her family knows her because they were raised with her.
‘Other people don’t, they just know her as Anna Nicole. Vickie Lynn was a great kid and now she’s gone.’
She added: ‘People say that you get over it but you never get over it. You never forget and you never get over it. God just makes a way for you to accept it.
‘I was totally devastated. My little Danny. Totally devastated.
‘No one has been charged with Danny’s death nor her death. Nobody.’
Anna Nicole Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on November 28, 1967 in Houston, Texas and her parents divorced before her second birthday. Her mother remarried and she grew up with five half-siblings in the small oil and gas town of Mexia, near Dallas.
She dropped out of high school in sophomore year and took a job as a cook at a fried chicken shop where she met her first husband, Billy Wayne Smith.
Her mother said that her daughter was mad because at first Smith showed no interest in her. ‘He was a sweet young man, very timid and shy,’ Arthur said. ‘It made her mad because he didn’t pay attention to her. She told me, “I’m going to get that boy, just watch, he’s going to marry me.”
![Anna Nicole marrying her first husband, Billy Wayne Smith, before a justice of the peace at his mother’s home in Texas. The couple met while working at a fried chicken shop as teenagers and later had a son, Daniel](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/14/3CF03E6200000578-4201590-image-a-4_1486565692954.jpg)
Anna Nicole marrying her first husband, Billy Wayne Smith, before a justice of the peace at his mother’s home in Texas. The couple met while working at a fried chicken shop as teenagers and later had a son, Daniel
![Anna Nicole while pregnant with Daniel. For the first six years of his life, he was raised by his grandmother, Virgie Arthur](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03E7900000578-0-image-a-15_1486505033444.jpg)
Anna Nicole while pregnant with Daniel. For the first six years of his life, he was raised by his grandmother, Virgie Arthur
![Arthur said: 'They got a little house behind the chicken place. I called down to check on her and she was huffing and puffing like she’d been running. I asked her what was wrong and she said, “Momma, me and Billy are trying to have us a baby."'](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/14/3CF0400C00000578-4201590-image-m-6_1486565820167.jpg)
Arthur said: 'They got a little house behind the chicken place. I called down to check on her and she was huffing and puffing like she’d been running. I asked her what was wrong and she said, “Momma, me and Billy are trying to have us a baby."'
![When Smith's son Daniel was six months old, she got tired of working a job at Red Lobster and got a stripping gig at the Executive Suite in Houston - much to the chagrin of her police officer mother who was forced to drag her from the club](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/14/3CF03FBA00000578-4201590-image-m-5_1486565796264.jpg)
When Smith's son Daniel was six months old, she got tired of working a job at Red Lobster and got a stripping gig at the Executive Suite in Houston - much to the chagrin of her police officer mother who was forced to drag her from the club
‘And I said, “Why? Because he doesn’t pay you any attention?” and she said, “That’s right.”
‘A few months later, they got married.’
The newlyweds had Daniel in 1986, and her mother recalled being a little more involved than she wanted to be in the family planning.
‘They got a little house behind the chicken place. I called down to check on her and she was huffing and puffing like she’d been running,’ Arthur said. ‘I asked her what was wrong and she said, “Momma, me and Billy are trying to have us a baby.”
“And I said, “Oh god, don’t tell me anymore, just don’t answer the phone, I’ll call back.”
When Daniel was six months old, Smith tired of working a job at Red Lobster and got a stripping gig at the Executive Suite in Houston – much to the chagrin of her police officer mother who was forced to drag her from the club.
‘[My partner and I] went over to the Executive Suite and the manager walked over when he saw us in there in uniform,’ Arthur said. ‘I was adjusting my eyes to see if I could see her. Sure enough, there she was with her G-string on in some man’s face, dancing.
‘I said, “That’s my daughter and I want her out of here and I want her out now. If you ever hire her again...I’ll come through here and check your liquor license every night.”
‘He put her out and shut the door. She was so mad. I said, “Vickie Lynn, you’re not going to do that kind of work. You’re supposed to be working at Red Lobster.”
‘She said, “Momma, I know you don’t understand this but I work at Red Lobster all night long and my back and my feet are killing me. I can go work at the Executive Suite one night and make $1,000 dollars.”
‘I said you’re not going to be working at no Executive Suite as long as I’m a cop. The next morning, she packed her stuff and said she was leaving, one of the girls was going to let her stay. I asked, what about Danny? ‘She said, “You keep him, you take care of him.”’
![Daniel grew up in rural Texas, as his mother shot to stardom as a Playboy centerfold](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03FCF00000578-0-image-a-22_1486505121711.jpg)
Daniel grew up in rural Texas, as his mother shot to stardom as a Playboy centerfold
![Anna Nicole Smith and her son Daniel in the 1990s. He died aged 20 in her hospital room](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03F9000000578-0-image-a-30_1486505224012.jpg)
Anna Nicole Smith and her son Daniel in the 1990s. He died aged 20 in her hospital room
![But until he was six years old, Daniel was taken care of by Arthur while Smith left and worked as a stripper, trying to become famous](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03D9600000578-0-image-a-17_1486505066059.jpg)
But until he was six years old, Daniel was taken care of by Arthur while Smith left and worked as a stripper, trying to become famous
![She longed to be taken seriously as an actress but she was pigeon-holed in small roles as the ditzy blonde in comedies like Naked Gun 331/2: The Final Insult](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03EF000000578-0-image-a-29_1486505217217.jpg)
She longed to be taken seriously as an actress but she was pigeon-holed in small roles as the ditzy blonde in comedies like Naked Gun 331/2: The Final Insult
![Three days after she gave birth to her daughter, Dannielynn Danny died in her hospital room of a drug overdose. His grandmother says he was never known to do drugs. Those close to Smith believe she spiralled out of control with prescription drugs following her beloved son’s death](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/16/3CF65B6A00000578-4201590-image-a-42_1486571657525.jpg)
Three days after she gave birth to her daughter, Dannielynn Danny died in her hospital room of a drug overdose. His grandmother says he was never known to do drugs. Those close to Smith believe she spiralled out of control with prescription drugs following her beloved son’s death
Arthur looked after Danny for the next six years until Smith’s career took off.
She got her big break in 1992, after sending naked pictures to Playboy magazine. She was featured on the cover and became Playmate of the Year in 1993.
She went on to model for Guess Jeans where her striking resemblance to Fifties star Jayne Mansfield made advertisers take notice. It led to a modelling contract for H&M and magazine spreads in Italian Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar.
She longed to be taken seriously as an actress but she was pigeon-holed in small roles as the ditzy blonde in comedies like Naked Gun 331/2: The Final Insult.
Smith found the notoriety she desired when in 1991, she met octogenarian billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall while performing at a Houston strip club and embarked on a relationship with him – while still married.
Her mother described Marshall as a ‘sweetheart’ but admitted that she was shocked by the age difference.
‘One time, when we all went to dinner together at his club, he said to me, “You don’t have to worry about Vickie Lynn or Danny, I will take care of them for their whole lives.”
‘He was in a wheelchair and he was really old. Vickie and I went to the bathroom, and I said “Vickie, how old is that man?” and she told me. She said, “But momma he helps me.”’
Smith divorced her first husband in 1993 and a year later, she married Marshall. She was 26 and he was 89.
Her name became synonymous with gold-digger but the Playboy pin-up insisted that she had married Marshall for love.
![Smith found the notoriety she desired when in 1991, she met octogenarian billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall while performing at a Houston strip club and embarked on a relationship with him - while still married](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03F8E00000578-0-image-a-27_1486505181168.jpg)
Smith found the notoriety she desired when in 1991, she met octogenarian billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall while performing at a Houston strip club and embarked on a relationship with him - while still married
![She told talk show host Larry King: ‘I wasn’t physically, “Oh my God, you hot, hot body,” you know like that. I was just - I love him for so much of what he did for me and my son. I mean, I just loved him – I’ve never had love like that before'](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03EF700000578-0-image-a-32_1486505247509.jpg)
She told talk show host Larry King: ‘I wasn’t physically, “Oh my God, you hot, hot body,” you know like that. I was just - I love him for so much of what he did for me and my son. I mean, I just loved him – I’ve never had love like that before'
![Arthur describes how when she was a cop she found her daughter at the Executive Suite in Houston with her G-string on in some man’s face, dancing](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03FB500000578-0-image-a-26_1486505172797.jpg)
Arthur describes how when she was a cop she found her daughter at the Executive Suite in Houston with her G-string on in some man’s face, dancing
![In the late 90's, after Marshall's death, Smith was a tabloid staple due to her wild lifestyle and a red-carpet favorite with her buxom blonde looks, low-cut dresses and penchant for flashing paparazzi](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03E3F00000578-0-image-a-31_1486505238847.jpg)
In the late 90's, after Marshall's death, Smith was a tabloid staple due to her wild lifestyle and a red-carpet favorite with her buxom blonde looks, low-cut dresses and penchant for flashing paparazzi
![The model posing in lingerie in one of her many raunchy photos. Smith finally found fame when she sent naked pictures of herself to Playboy in the early 90's and went on to be featured on the cover and be Playmate of the Year in 1993](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03E3000000578-0-image-a-25_1486505150367.jpg)
The model posing in lingerie in one of her many raunchy photos. Smith finally found fame when she sent naked pictures of herself to Playboy in the early 90's and went on to be featured on the cover and be Playmate of the Year in 1993
She told talk show host Larry King: ‘I wasn’t physically, “Oh my God, you hot, hot body,” you know like that. I was just - I love him for so much of what he did for me and my son. I mean, I just loved him - I’ve never had love like that before.’
The couple reportedly never consummated the marriage but a set of exclusive images shared with DailyMail.com revealed the bond between them. In one image, Smith, wearing a gold bikini, and her son Daniel cuddle up to Marshall who is lying in a hospital bed. In another, Smith and Marshall are pictured fishing on a riverbank.
After 13 months of marriage, Marshall died of natural causes in August 1995.
Smith embarked on a lengthy legal battle against Marshall’s family to access his estate, claiming that her late husband had orally promised her half of his wealth. The case continued beyond her death but was eventually thrown out.
In the late 90's, Smith was a tabloid staple due to her wild lifestyle and a red-carpet favorite with her buxom blonde looks, low-cut dresses and penchant for flashing paparazzi.
In the early 2000s, her reality series, The Anna Nicole Show, launched on the E! Network but was canceled after two seasons in 2003 due to declining viewership.
Smith’s drug use spiraled out of control and her mother believes the celebrity persona of Anna Nicole began to take over.
‘She had a big problem with drugs and the more she took, the more she wanted,’ Arthur said.
‘You could tell the difference between Anna Nicole and Vickie Lynn. Anna was very mean, I don’t know how to explain her. On drugs, she was a terrible person to be around.’
She added: ‘It was hard to approve of anything Vickie did because she was so different from any of my other children.
‘She didn’t explain things well, I couldn’t understand being naked and throwing yourself at men.
Arthur once confronted her daughter over the outlandish stories she told about her apparent penniless upbringing.
‘She said, “Momma, please try and understand. I want to make money and I want to be noticed. So these stories that I tell, momma, but it’s not about you, it’s about me.’
Arthur laughed as she recalled one particular story that Smith had told where she claimed that she was raised by her aunt in Mexia, Texas and they were so poor they had to steal toilet paper from gas stations.
‘She said, “Momma, the worse the story, the more pitiful the story, the more money I make.
![Smith had a slew of various cosmetic surgeries, including lip augmentation, a breast lift, a facelift, liposuction and a tummy tuck. Here she is recuperating from lipo](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03DA200000578-0-image-a-18_1486505075817.jpg)
Smith had a slew of various cosmetic surgeries, including lip augmentation, a breast lift, a facelift, liposuction and a tummy tuck. Here she is recuperating from lipo
![Her liposuction procedure looked especially painful, with gauze taped to her back and blood staining her clothes and mattress](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/15/3CF03DD400000578-4201590-image-a-10_1486566533145.jpg)
Her liposuction procedure looked especially painful, with gauze taped to her back and blood staining her clothes and mattress
![Anna Nicole Smith on a modelling shoot in the 1990s. 'I can be good and still make money but I’ll make much more money if I’m bad,' Smith reportedly told her mother](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03FEA00000578-0-image-a-23_1486505142407.jpg)
Anna Nicole Smith on a modelling shoot in the 1990s. 'I can be good and still make money but I’ll make much more money if I’m bad,' Smith reportedly told her mother
“I can be good and still make money but I’ll make much more money if I’m bad. If things are pitiful, I’ll make a whole lot more money than I would if it was a normal life like I’ve had.
“Nobody wants to hear about a normal life, marrying a millionaire. But a dirt-poor, pitiful child, that now momma, is a story. Don’t take it so hard that I’m doing this. It’s not about you, this is my life and I want to live it.”’
Arthur denied that she and her daughter were estranged in the years before she died.
‘We were never estranged, I didn’t even know that word until I heard it on TV,’ Arthur said.
‘She always called, she might not have come to see me but she called and she wrote me letters, she sent me pictures of her and Danny. I went down there and visited her a couple of times in California.’
Smith announced she was pregnant in 2006, kicking off a paternity battle when four of her alleged lovers came forward claiming they could be the father: Smith’s boyfriend, photographer Larry Birkhead; her lawyer Howard K Stern; a previous boyfriend Mark Hatten and, most bizarrely, Zsa Gabor’s husband Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, who claimed to have had a ten-year affair with her.
‘A lot of men stood up and said it could have been theirs,’ her mother said.
While pregnant, Smith moved to the Bahamas with Birkhead, her entourage and her lawyer – and later partner – Howard K. Stern. She exchanged vows with Stern at a commitment ceremony in the Caribbean.
Smith gave birth to daughter Dannielynn on September 7, 2006.
Arthur said: ‘She was a beautiful little girl and Vickie always wanted a girl. When Danny was born, she was a little disappointed because he wasn’t a girl.
![‘She had a big problem with drugs and the more she took, the more she wanted,’ Arthur said. ‘You could tell the difference between Anna Nicole and Vickie Lynn. Anna was very mean, I don’t know how to explain her. On drugs, she was a terrible person to be around'](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03F2D00000578-0-image-a-21_1486505098872.jpg)
‘She had a big problem with drugs and the more she took, the more she wanted,’ Arthur said. ‘You could tell the difference between Anna Nicole and Vickie Lynn. Anna was very mean, I don’t know how to explain her. On drugs, she was a terrible person to be around'
![Smith and her ex-convict, bodyguard lover Pierre DeJean. In 1995, she took a restraining order against him claiming he had threatened to kill her](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/07/22/3CF03FD700000578-0-image-a-24_1486505150212.jpg)
Smith and her ex-convict, bodyguard lover Pierre DeJean. In 1995, she took a restraining order against him claiming he had threatened to kill her
‘She wanted a girl that she could dress up in the finest clothes and teach her how to be a girl. For years she bought clothes, pacifiers, hairbrushes and bottles. She had a whole chest she put that stuff in for when she had a little girl.’
Her mother added: ‘I have a letter she wrote me, saying “One day I’m just going to have sex with somebody and I’m going to have me a baby girl. I won’t tell them that I’m pregnant and they’ll never know and then I’ll just have my little baby girl.”
‘It wasn’t long after that she called and said she was pregnant.’
Three days after Dannielynn's birth, Smith’s happiness was destroyed by the shocking death of her 20-year-old son Daniel who died in her hospital room.
The 20-year-old suffered an accidental overdose of methadone, Zoloft and Lexapro. During his funeral, a distraught Smith even tried to jump in his coffin. Many of those close to her believe that her beloved son’s death set her on a disastrous path of unfettered drug use.
In early February 2007, she checked into the Hard Rock hotel in Seminole, Florida. She was suffering from stomach flu and fever brought on by a pus-filled infection on her buttocks from repeated injection of other drugs.
On February 8, she was found unconscious in her room. Her staff gave her CPR and dramatic footage, shown here, was taken of last moments as paramedics continued to work on her as they wheeled her to an ambulance.
She was pronounced dead in the hospital that afternoon. She was 39.
![Three days after her daughter Dannielynn's birth in 2006, Smith’s happiness was destroyed by the shocking death of her 20-year-old son Daniel who died in her hospital room](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/13/3CF0A82B00000578-4201590-image-a-38_1486562013111.jpg)
Three days after her daughter Dannielynn's birth in 2006, Smith’s happiness was destroyed by the shocking death of her 20-year-old son Daniel who died in her hospital room
![Months later, Smith checked into the Hard Rock hotel in Seminole, Florida and was found unconscious in her room. She later died in the hospital and was buried in the Bahamas. Her mother bemoan the fact she was not buried near her home in Texas](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/13/3CF0A82700000578-4201590-image-a-39_1486562019794.jpg)
Months later, Smith checked into the Hard Rock hotel in Seminole, Florida and was found unconscious in her room. She later died in the hospital and was buried in the Bahamas. Her mother bemoan the fact she was not buried near her home in Texas
Arthur found out about her daughter’s death on TV while recuperating from an illness at home.
‘I was recovering from an aneurysm and I still didn’t have all my senses correctly,’ she said. ‘When I saw it on TV that she had died, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it.
‘My husband and son came running in to keep me from seeing it but I had already seen it.
‘I said, it’s a lie. It didn’t really happen. It didn’t. Danny’s gone and now Vickie’s gone? And I told her to be ever so careful about her friends that were about her - because they are not all friends.’
Arthur immediately flew to the Bahamas because she was worried for her granddaughter’s safety.
‘I was scared to death that Dannielynn would be the next one that died. I was scared to death so I went to the Bahamas to see if there was any way I could stop it and it not happen to her,’ she said.
Smith’s cause of death was found to be ‘combined drug intoxication’ of at least nine prescription drugs including the powerful sleeping medication chloral hydrate.
Police found no apparent signs of foul play, and the medical examiner also ruled Smith’s death probably was not a suicide because people who take their own lives typically use much more lethal drugs than chloral hydrate.
The star’s sudden death rocked the world of showbiz and sparked conspiracy theories.
![Photographer Larry Birkhead was found to be Dannielynn’s father after a DNA test. She now lives with him full-time. The two are pictured here last May](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/15/3CF0A81800000578-4201590-image-m-9_1486566509497.jpg)
Photographer Larry Birkhead was found to be Dannielynn’s father after a DNA test. She now lives with him full-time. The two are pictured here last May
![Arthur says that although Birkhead has called to tell her about her granddaughter and sent pictures, she has been unable to see her. She begged Birkhead to allow Smith’s family to build relationships with the ten-year-old](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/15/3CF0926500000578-4201590-image-m-8_1486566493640.jpg)
Arthur says that although Birkhead has called to tell her about her granddaughter and sent pictures, she has been unable to see her. She begged Birkhead to allow Smith’s family to build relationships with the ten-year-old
Various court cases followed her death as those close to her battled over her burial place and the paternity of her daughter.
Smith was buried in the Bahamas next to Daniel against her family’s wishes. ‘I wanted her to come home to Texas where she belonged,’ her mother said.
‘This was her home, this was where she was from and this was where Danny was from and they both needed to be buried together in Texas.’
She added: ‘I didn’t understand why she had to be buried in the Bahamas. Nobody can afford to go over there. My family most of them don’t have passports to go over there.
‘So how can we visit with her and sit and cry and understand what in the world could have happened? There are strangers paying to look at her grave but none of her family can go look at her grave.’
In a dispute with Stern, photographer Larry Birkhead was found to be Dannielynn’s father thanks to a DNA test.
At the time of the birth, Smith had insisted the child's father was Stern and had his name placed on the birth certificate. Birkhead took Dannielynn to live with him in Louisville, Kentucky where he raises her alone.
Arthur says that although Birkhead has called to tell her about her granddaughter and sent pictures, she has been unable to see her. She begged Birkhead to allow Smith’s family to build relationships with the ten-year-old, who she hasn't seen since 2010.
![Arthur made an impassioned plea to her granddaughter: ‘Dannielynn - meemaw loves you with all her heart. You have a lot of your momma in you and you have a lot of family here in Texas - uncles and aunts and cousins that you’ve never got to see'](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209074438/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/13/3CF092A500000578-4201590-image-a-40_1486562040088.jpg)
Arthur made an impassioned plea to her granddaughter: ‘Dannielynn - meemaw loves you with all her heart. You have a lot of your momma in you and you have a lot of family here in Texas - uncles and aunts and cousins that you’ve never got to see'
She said: ‘I want to be part of Dannielynn’s life. She is my daughter’s child and the only one left in that line of lives. Vickie’s daddy is dead, her husband is dead and her first husband is dead, his parents are dead. They have all passed away.
‘[Dannielynn] never has got to know any of them. It’s not fair to her not to know her mother’s side of the family.
She told Birkhead: ‘She needs to know and one day, she will. One day, you will have problems with her and she’ll find where we’re at and she will come to find us to talk about her mother.
‘That’s something you need to know, one day, she’ll come look for her mother’s people. Although you’ve never let us be a part of her life, we’re still here. And one day she will come to find us.’
She added: ‘Vickie Lynn was very curious and Dannielynn will be too. Every daughter wants to know their mother.’
Birkhead told Inside Edition last week that he had no rift with Arthur. He said: 'I’ve never talked about that before, but I get hurt by that headline. Anna’s mom has seen Dannielynn, she’s seen her a few times. I say that only because I want the story to stop.
'If Anna’s mom wants to see Dannielynn, she knows how to get a hold of me and she can call me anytime.'
Arthur is desperate to share memories with Dannielynn of how much her mother loved her.
‘I would tell her how much I love her and how much her mother loved her even before she was born,’ Arthur said.
‘She bought her clothes and toys and anything that a little baby girl could wear, she had it. She anticipated having that baby.’
The grandmother appealed to her granddaughter directly.
‘Dannielynn - meemaw loves you with all her heart. You have a lot of your momma in you and you have a lot of family here in Texas - uncles and aunts and cousins that you’ve never got to see.
‘I hope that one day you will come find us, baby, and you can see how your momma lived and what fun she was. You can meet her brother, David, and her other brother, Donald Jr, and see what a great family she has. And that’s who she grew up with.’
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