Anna Nicole Smith Is Still Big Business, Even After Death
NASSAU, Bahamas, March 22, 2007 — -- Kneeling down on the edge of a dusty road, 67-year-old Carolyn Flowers is very focused, assiduously at work. She's picking up pieces of gravel on the edge of the cemetery where Anna Nicole Smith is buried. "I have a friend who's going to sell it for me on eBay."
The retiree from Marshall, Ill., has stopped on Nassau with a tour group from her Royal Caribbean cruise. "I wanted to see where Anna Nicole was buried. I have been following her story very carefully, the details are so interesting."
The white van waiting for Flowers and her gang is driven by Bahamian Tiger Major, sporting a blue-on-blue uniform with his name "Tiger" inscribed over his lapel. Major flashed a big, white smile and held up a sign: "Anna Nicole's Estates Tour."
"I take them here to the graveyard, then to Anna's house, then to Doctor's Hospital where Anna's son Daniel died," Major explained. He charges $25 dollars a head, and says business is booming during the busy "spring break" season.
Major profits from Smith, but many people here in this conservative, well-mannered society are offended by the mess that has descended on their islands. Some locals believe the whole scandal surrounding Smith's death is a stain on their way of life and their image. An office cleaner who would only give us her nickname "Babs" says that ever since Smith arrived, "her beautiful, peaceful island" has been disrupted by an outside force.
"There is a devil loose on this island. It got into Anna Nicole .. and it got loose in the house of parliament, made Mr. Shane (Gibson, the former minister of immigration) disrupt his whole party line ... We need to pray," she said.
Back at the cemetery, American tourists are snapping pictures of Smith's grave. One gets the feeling it might go on for years.
"I wanted to pay my respects to Anna. I'm a fan of hers. I think she was beautiful," said 20-year-old Kim Polfliet, on her spring break from Wisconsin.
Tourists are prevented from getting close to the grave by uniformed security guards standing outside the cemetery. They were put there after locals complained that American tourists were trampling their loved ones' graves.
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