Anna Nicole's body bound for Bahamas

The coffin holding Anna Nicole Smith’s body was today loaded onto a private flight to the Bahamas for her funeral, after weeks of legal wrangling over where the pin-up should be buried.

Authorities had escorted a slow-moving black hearse to Miami International Airport through deserted, pre-dawn streets and on highway car pool lanes, as news helicopters tracked the procession from the Broward County medical examiner’s office in Fort Lauderdale.

The plane was to leave in time to get the body to the Bahamian capital of Nassau for a burial later in the morning.

But the funeral might not mean the end of the saga: Smith’s estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, will likely try to get the body out of the Bahamas, said her lawyer, Tom Pirtle. He would not give details about possible legal action.

“We are not exactly sure what shape it is going to be,” Pirtle said yesterday, just hours after saying Ms Arthur had decided to drop her legal challenges in Florida courts.

The funeral is to take place later today at the Mount Horeb Baptist Church in Nassau, and she is to be buried at the Lakeview Memorial Gardens, said Richard Milstein, the court-appointed advocate for Anna Nicole’s five-month-old daughter Dannielynn. A judge gave him control of the starlet’s remains.

Both services are closed to the public, Mr Milstein said in a statement issued yesterday by a public relations firm.

Anna Nicole’s February 8 death in a hotel room at age 39 set off legal disputes in California, Florida and the Bahamas. Her boyfriend, mother and an ex-boyfriend have argued over who should get the body and who should take custody of Dannielynn, who could inherit millions of dollars.

Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward medical examiner, said he will announce Anna Nicole’s cause of death next week.

Anna Nicole will be buried in a custom-made gown next to her 20-year-old son Daniel following an “over the top” memorial service, said a friend helping to organise the memorial.

The service, with about 300 guests, will feature large amounts of pink flowers, her favourite colour, and music by a well-known singer whose name organisers were not ready to disclose, said the friend, Patrik Simpson of Beverly Hills, California.

Ms Arthur, Smith’s boyfriend Howard Stern and ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead will temporarily put aside their differences to attend the services.

Ms Arthur had wanted to bury Anna Nicole in her native Texas, and fought last week’s ruling from Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin that gave control of the body to Milstein.

But Mr Stern insisted the former Playboy Playmate wanted to be buried next to Daniel, who died of apparent drug-related causes last year. Mr Milstein agreed.

On Wednesday, a Florida appeals court upheld Judge Seidlin’s ruling.

Smith married Texas oil tycoon Howard Marshall 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 $500m (€370m) fortune since his death in 1995.