Anna Nicole Smith - The Mexia Years
Written by Bill G on February 22nd, 2007 in Anna Nicole Smith, TV, celebrities, culture, travel.
So what was it like growing up for Anna Nicole Smith? We at OddCulture will try to paint a picture for you. Kind of a desert-type picture, set in Texas, with old rustic buildings and maybe a neon sign.
* Anna Nicole Smith was originally born as Vickie Lynn Hogan on November 28, 1967 in Houston, Texas. She was the only child of Donald Eugene Hogan and Virgie Mae Tabers, although she did have half-sisters and half-brothers. Virgie Tabers was only 16 when Vickie was born.
Donald Hogan
* Half-sister Donna Hogan lived in Splendora, Texas. She recently wrote a book entitled Train Wreck: The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith
* Mom and dad divorced 2 years later and Vickie Hogan was raised by her mother and maternal aunt, Elaine Tabers. Virgie Tabers subsequently married Donald R. Hart (1971), Joe D. Thompson (1987), James T. Sanders (1996) and James H. Arthur (2000). After Tabers married Donald R. Hart, Vickie Hogan changed her name to Nikki Hart.
Virgie Arthur, Vickie’s Mom - Married 5 times
* In the 9th grade, Nikki Hart moved to the city of Mexia, Texas to live with her Aunt Kay Beall., whom she called “Mama II”. “Anna was my pet,” says Beall, a former attendant at a state school for mentally ill children. “She used to come over and stay with me and clean my house. I’d give her five dollars of my food stamps to let her go to the store and get some candy.”
Photos of Mexia, TX
*At Mexia High School she failed her freshman year, and dropped out of her sophomore, never progressing past an eighth grade education. The school barely remembers her.
Nikki Hart Yearbook Photo, 1985
* While working as a waitress at Jim’s Krispy Fried Chicken in Mexia, she met Billy Smith, who was a cook at the restaurant. The couple married in 1985 - she was 17 and he was 16.
“He was sweet and he was so cute back there, cookin’ chicken,” said Anna Nicole.
The next year, she gave birth to their son, Daniel Wayne Smith. She and Billy separated in 1987 and she moved to Houston with one-year-old Daniel.
Jim’s Krispy Fried Chicken - Highly recommended for good cheap eats
312 E Milam St
Mexia, TX 76667
* Billy Smith still lives in Mexia. The town barely remembers her.
* Once home to 35,000 residents after a 1920s oil boom, Mexia’s older neighborhoods are now a mix of clapboard houses and mobile homes. Its largest employers are Mexia State School, a facility for the mentally disabled; the hospital and school district. The median income for a family was less than $30,000, compared to nearly $46,000 statewide, according the 2000 U.S. Census. One of every five families lived below the poverty line.
Nan Capers, a special education teacher at the high school, stopped in for dinner and said she remembered Ms. Smith. “She stood back, not one who would really strike you,” Ms. Capers said, adding that Ms. Smith did not participate in band or any other extracurricular activities. “I never got on to her for anything. She was very much a loner.” “Way back when she was being famous, she kept saying Mexia was her home,” Ms. Capers said. “I guess she felt like this was more home than anywhere else she’s been.”
Bob Crider, a retired biology teacher at Mexia High School, said he taught Ms. Smith in 1984. “She was tall, she was skinny, and she was a brunette at that time,” he said. “She was an average student.” The thing he remembered about her, he said, was that she wouldn’t dissect a pig for biology class and told him she wasn’t going to “poke that pig.” Mr. Crider said she didn’t run around with any particular group. “It’s always been peculiar to me why she called Mexia home,” he added. “I just assumed she had two good years here.”
No one answered the door at the home of ex-husband Billy Smith, whom Mr. Crider described as a recluse.
* Interview with Steve Hughes, owner of Jim’s Krispy Fried Chicken:
A tall, skinny teenager, Ms. Smith was nice and unassuming, Mr. Hughes said. Nothing, including her brunette hair and average bust-size, revealed a glimpse of the ersatz Marilyn Monroe she became. “She was just another teenager working in a fast-food restaurant,” Mr. Hughes said. “Only a handful of people in this town really knew her.”
Mr. Hughes, a trim and youthful 44, bought the restaurant from his father, an Air Force veteran, in 1986. Already a popular restaurant, it became even more so late last week. Media vans and trucks jammed the perimeter of the property along U.S. Highway 84, also known as East Milam Street, the main business route through town.
By Friday morning, Mr. Hughes was on guard to keep the media cameras at bay, permitting only a Fox TV crew in the door. But his face and voice betrayed his tension when he was asked yet again what Ms. Smith’s life was like when she worked at Jim’s.
“Take a look around,” he said. “She was a teenager like everyone else in here.” Then he added: “She had nothing and nobody really. She didn’t have any roots here.”
The phrase – “She had no roots here” – was often repeated around Mexia.
Ms. Smith’s mother, Virgie Arthur, had asked her daughter why she overstated her small-town roots in Mexia.
“She said, ‘Mom, nobody wants to read books or see people on TV concerning, you know, middle-class girl found a rich millionaire and married him. There’s not a story in that,’ ” Ms. Arthur recalled on Good Morning America. “She said, ‘The story is I come from rags to riches, and so that’s what I’m going to tell.’ ”
~Bill G
Coming Up: Anna Nicole Smith - The Houston Years
February 24th, 2007 at 1:15 am
I think This story of Anna nicole Smith is so sad , I hope who ever the father is he gets this child and I hope her mother lets her be put by her son, I am a mother and I would want my child to be put where she wanted. why does her mother want hold on to her now it over she is gone thers nothing the mother can to do to help her now, if i were the mother i walk away after all the years .
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:41 pm
I can tell you why! It is a matter of final control! I haven’t had a relationship with my father for 3 years but he has made mention to my siblings that if I was to pass before him, he had final say in my final resting place and all no matter what my wishes or the wishes o my children are. That is what it is all about!
March 12th, 2007 at 8:16 am
I would not print or air a anything that Virgie Arthur says about Anna Nicole. She lies, she only claims Anna as a daughter now because she might profit from it. That woman is evil. Wanting to exhume Daniel and Anna to move them to Texas. They didn’t love Texas….they didn’t even live there. Some people are so selfish.
March 12th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Sad!
She just never got the right kind of love.
Wish someone in her family would have hooked her up with good church when she was growing up.
March 13th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Anna never got love her a proper life growing up. Virgie had 5 husbands and how
many boyfriends? People in Mexia either didn’t know Anna or barely remember
her as a quiet loner. That tells us alot about a mother who had time for a string
of men in her life, yet no time to get her daughter involved in school activities.
Virgie wants Anna’s fame and money. The step sister, Donna Hogan wanted to
be Anna. She was jealous of Anna’s looks, money, and men. She once said “I ‘
could have done what Anna did,” but I wouldn’t like that trashy life. So the day
Anna died that gat ugly sister Donna went on t.v. to dis Anna and announce she
got a book deal.. Hope no one buys a book written by a jealous half sister who
didn’t know her own sister. Virgie, dreaming of Anna’s money and fame deserves
nothing. Any woman that could take a reporter into the morgue when you are to
finally view your deceased daughter, then walk on her grave deserves nothing.
Had I been at the funeral I would have pushed that witch into the grave and had
covered before the old bat could get out.
March 16th, 2007 at 3:29 am
I didn’t know Anna, I have lived in Mexia the last 14 years and before that I lived
here inmy grade school years. I do think this whole thing is a mess. I don’t know
what to think of Virgie. Because I don’t know her. But I know she must have done
somethign for Anna to hate her as much as she did. I do not think it is right for
all of the sudden now Dannys father wanting to be part of this. For those who
thought Anna was dumb, she must not have been look where she got herself. I
do think something happend to her and her son. There is to much of a coincedience
of both deaths so close. I believe there will be alot of this story to come.
Virgie she may have been your daughter but, you are wrong for what you are
doing, and for the wrong reasons.
Remeber what you put out, will adventually come back to you 7 folds.
March 17th, 2007 at 11:54 am
I for one know how it is when you have a wild teen and they turn to drugs later in life. All addicts push people out of thier lives that won’t go along with thier addiction. I feel bad for Vergie because I know sher tried but I feel Anna was too wild and hard headed to listen to anyone. Then when she turned to drugs she really pushed people away except for the ones that accepted her drugging. She even wanted Larry out of her life and Dannielynns life because she knew with her taking all the drugs she took she would lose custody of Dannielynn, thats why she went to the bahamas so nobody could go against what she wanted to say on the birth certificate. Vergie walking on Annas grave reminded me of what my G-Mother told me years ago, “If you can’t walk on your loved ones grave you have a guilty conscious” and I believe that. Eric Redding, Annas former manager said Anna and her Mother had a good relationship in 1991 so I think it was the pills etc that made Anna talk bad about her Mother. Howard saw he could keep Anna drugged up and make money off her in that state. He is nothing more than a bum that takes advantage of whomever he can, now hes taking advantage of his parents who has to support him since his money maker has died but be assured hes still making money off Anna, selling things that should actually be in a trust for Dannielynn and not with him in control of it. Howard K Sterns has no dog in this fight hes just a bum with no source of income and he hasn’t filed taxes nor paid taxes for all the benefits and other compensations he got as her attorney from his client Anna. Look at your w-2 it says wages, tips and other compensations. Vergie was a police officer and male officers marry a lot too because its not easy to cope with a spouse being a police officer. If you haven’t walked in Vergies shoes then who are you to judge?
March 22nd, 2007 at 8:35 pm
God Bless, Virgie Arthur. I know this is not how she wanted things to be. We all love you and are praying for you. Your a fighter where your family is concerned. All of the world has learned from you. God Bless you and your family.
March 23rd, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I’m amazed by Virgie’s 5 marriages- 5 men actually married this woman? Maybe I should get out of Match and join Redneckmen4u.com…
March 25th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Poor Nicole. I only lived in Mexia for eight years from 1972 to 1980. If you didn’t belong to a church, or excelled at school, and were poor, you had a pretty rough time of it. Fortunately, for me I was married had my own home and went to a Methodist Church, where my daughter was baptized. My x-husband was Hospital Administrator for the Mexia General Hospital, which is now called something else. Lucky for me because of my x I had friends who seemed to care for me and my daughter. But, I was dropped very quickly by them when they fired my x. They didn’t want anything to do with me. ANS must have had a bad time of it in Mexia, except when she worked at the chicken restaurant take out. I will miss her now that she is gone.
March 28th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Virgie is a real piece of shit. I have children and grandchildren and know for a fact that I would never shovel fifty some shovels of dirt on my childs grave, or stomp on it like that fat pig did.
The money grubber should stop making accusations against Howard, especially now that the autopsy results are out. Dr. Wecht who did Danie’s autopsy as well as Dr. Perper who did Anna’s said, “Accidental” Yet old Virgie is now saying these world famous pathologist are lying..Why doesn’t Howard, Dr. Wecht, and Dr. Perper get together and sue that creature.
My advice is use some decorum and common sense, stop allowing reporters to take sleazy pictures and reflect on the reasons Anna had the problems she had. Grieve for the grandson you never really knew and the daughter you pushed out of your life. Anna’s baby should never be near a woman that Anna publiclly hated and disowned. Your daughter didn’t want you near her child so respect the last wishes of your daughter and give your granddaughter a chance of a good life. “Stay away from the baby.”
February 19th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
im pretty pissed that donna has said so much negative things about our family like she is so perfect.she has said so many things about me and our dad for instance that our dad molested her. this is a lie and she knows it.shes tring to be the poor victim but the family including anna is the victims. she is the one who has always been homeless and on all kinds of drugs including needles.so who the hell does she think she is.her book is a big fat lie she never knew anna.none of us did until she looked up my dad and then donna was the one who blew the chance for any of us to get to know her because of her lies!!
February 24th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Didnt we all just see you on TV with your sister talking about how all your kids were cross eyed with that eye condition?Did Donna prefer to spend money on new boobies rather than surgery for her daughter so she didnt have to keep being ridiculed at school? How sad. poor kid.
you looked pretty cozy there, guess you put aside your differences to make a dollar.
your dad is a convicted child rapist, I wouldn’t be so sure Donna is lying.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:54 am
In defense of Virgie. She was a baby having babies. Just a victim of a tough life. I knew her stepfather G.W. and her brother Melvin best. Melvin was three years older than me and he had a beautiful new Camaro. We even worked in the same donut shop when I was a kid. I went to school with her sister Kay. I even danced a time or two with her. My dad sold the family a baby bed for a baby girl. That baby was probably Anna Nicole. I was at the house several times but I never knew the names of all the little tikes. This was not a picture perfect family but please have some mercy. Virgie had turmoil in her life but she was always willing to wor hard to mae a better life. Was Anna doomed from the start but Virgie never had a lot of breaks either. I gained respect for the family when they too the side of the Marshall`s. They never felt that Anna was entitled to all that money.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:29 am
There are rumors that Virgie was not Vickie’s real mother, and that there is a twin.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:33 am
The rumor goes that these twins were born out of wedlock and born bastards. These twins were separated at an early age. There is more than one trust fund between the twins. That is why Virgie wanted to take care of Daniel. Trust Funds Run to siblings, and children. If you want the truth look at Donald and his previous relationships. Where is the twin ? PA, NY ?
March 16th, 2008 at 8:46 am
If someone decides to marry someone without a prenuptial agreement maybe there was a reason. If you already disinherited one son for inheritance, First why would a father do that. Maybe, The father found out too late that the second son was screwing him over too, but knowing his medical condition and knowing he could not bring himself to go through the court trauma. Maybe he really wanted to marry Anna Nicole Smith to inherit all the money. Maybe the gold diggers were his actually sons looking to bury their father as soon as possible. Why would someone refuse to have their own son have guardianship over him? Maybe Howard Marshall found someone that he thought deserved the money more, Like Ladimer Pomar
October 1st, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I think that Virgie needs to back out of the picture. Anna’s body may be in the Bahamas but her soul is with her son and she is more than likely happier now than she has ever been except that her little girl isn’t with her. Anna Nicole Smith went from rags to riches. She doesn’t need everyone turning her into a bad person now that she is gone. Maybe her dad should have been in her life more and maybe not. We can’t say for sure on that. Anna was a decent person and she had her flaws just like we all do. Maybe if everyone will just leave things as they are then everyone can come to peace about her sudden death.