MaryAnnDVC
"Mare", DISing since '99; prefers being tagless
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2001
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Larry Birkhead and Dannielynn arrived in Kentucky about 2 1/2 hours ago. 
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/05/01/smith.baby.ap/index.html
I defended her in the past...poor Grandma...just trying to get Dannielynn away from the man who enabled her daughter and allowed her to die. But no way anymore. She's scummy. Not sure exactly where this is from...who the author is...but it's an interesting read. I've read that Virgie Arthur was married 5 or 6 times. http://janedevin.com/2007/04/18/will-the-cycle-end/
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/05/01/smith.baby.ap/index.html
An interesting article about Virgie Arthur's life...I wouldn't want her to be a decision maker in my daughter's life! She said in an Interview on some show (Entertainment Tonight? Insider?) that "Larry is part of my family now, like it or not" and then laughed.LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) -- Anna Nicole Smith's ex-boyfriend arrived in Kentucky from the Bahamas on Tuesday with their infant daughter and said he is looking forward to introducing the baby to his family.
"It just feels good to be home," Larry Birkhead said after stepping off a private jet and walking up to a fence where more than a dozen photographers and reporters were gathered.
Birkhead said he plans to show off 7-month-old Dannielynn to his family in Louisville and "relax and horse around."
He said his plans include attending the Barnstable Brown party on Friday, a celebrity-packed gala on the eve of the Kentucky Derby. The event is where he and Smith first met when he was working as a freelance photographer.
He said Tuesday the baby had an easy flight.
"She did great," he said.
At a private terminal at the Louisville airport, people could be seen moving a variety of baby gear off the plane and into the back of an SUV. An infant car seat, facing away from reporters, was taken off the plane and put in the back seat of the SUV. A few minutes later Birkhead got into the vehicle and it drove off.
Birkhead, a 34-year-old photographer based in Los Angeles, was authorized by a judge last week to take the girl out of the Bahamas. The ruling followed legal battles by Birkhead to prove his paternity claim and gain custody following the former Playboy playmate's death in February from an accidental drug overdose.
A new Bahamian birth certificate listing Birkhead as the father was issued in line with a court order last week, removing the name of Smith's last companion, Howard K. Stern. Stern had been caring for the girl in the oceanfront home in the Bahamas he shared with Smith.
I defended her in the past...poor Grandma...just trying to get Dannielynn away from the man who enabled her daughter and allowed her to die. But no way anymore. She's scummy. Not sure exactly where this is from...who the author is...but it's an interesting read. I've read that Virgie Arthur was married 5 or 6 times. http://janedevin.com/2007/04/18/will-the-cycle-end/Will the Cycle End?
Virgie Mae Arthur was just 14 years old when she was pregnant with her first child, David Tacker, Jr. The father of the boy was 17, and Virgies (non-blood related) stepbrother. Some reports say that Arthur and Tacker, Sr. married before their son was born; others list only Arthurs five marriages afterwards.
Seventeen is the age of consent in Texas. One might argue that regardless of whether Arthur married her stepbrother while pregnant, she could technically be considered a victim of statutory rape, a fact which seems bolstered by the senior Tackers arrest record. In 1982, Tacker was arrested for the rape of a child, and convicted for incest.
Arthurs second husband, Donald Hogan, was alleged in the book Big Beautiful Doll to have molested a ten year old Kay Beale. Donald Hogan fathered Arthurs daughter, Vicki Lynn Hogan, better known as Anna Nicole, in 1967. Arthur divorced Hogan when Anna was two years old, and according to Donna Hogan, he was ordered by the courts to stay away from the family.
Arthur then went on to marry Donald Ray Hart. They had a son, Donald Ray Hart, Jr. in 1972. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, a thirty-nine year old Anna referred to abuse perpetrated by her mother, stepfather and stepbrother, but did not specify which brother. In Big Beautiful Doll, Anna is reported as saying that her mother used to handcuff her to the bed as punishment for leaving the house.
Not much is known about the elder Hart, but the younger one later served six years in prison for assisting in the kidnap and planned murder of a paraplegic woman. People who have interviewed Donald Hart, Jr. say that he appears to have an extremely low IQ and may be borderline retarded. Donald Hart suffered a brain injury when he was three years old.
When Anna was 15, she was sent to live with her aunt Kay Beales family in Mexia, Texas. Beale is the mother of cousin Shelley who would later make an appearance on Anna Nicole Show. While author Eric Redding made claims of prescription drug abuse by Beale, and methamphetamine use by Shelley, these claims were not backed with solid proof. What is not refuted is that the family was extremely poor. When interviewed by Redding, Kay Beale stated that she would give Anna five dollars of her food stamps in exchange for Anna cleaning the house.
One of Annas early boyfriends, Al Bolt, said that when Annas career began taking off, she invited the Beale family to live with her. Bolt said, Her Aunt Kay was very large, very sloppy. Vickie invited her to come from Mexia to Houston to watch out for Daniel. So the whole family just moved in. They were all living there and none of them worked. Vicki was the only breadwinner.
Anna dropped out of high school after going to live with the Beale family. She had a history of learning difficulties and there are no reports to indicate that this was addressed in any way by her family or the school system. In later years, a judge would make note of her illiteracy in court papers, and the publication and broadcast of Annas private diaries and e-mails would open the door to sad and unfortunate public ridicule.
After leaving high school, Anna went to work for Jims Krispy Fried Chicken. She married cook Billy Wayne Smith in April 1985, when she was seven months shy of her 18th year. Their son Daniel was born in January 1986, nine months later. The pair separated in 1987 and officially divorced in 1993. The father did not have a relationship with his son. Anna worked a variety of minimum wage jobs before becoming a stripper, and then embarking on a career as model, spokesperson and actress.
Reports vary as to the extent of mother Virgie Arthurs role in Anna and Daniels life in pre-Playmate days. Virgie has made claims that she raised Daniel until he was six years old. Others dispute this, and say that Virgie is exaggerating, and that it was more like four years and that Anna was also present in the home for much of that time, and lived with her mother and son when she was not traveling. Annas diary excerpts show that Virgie and daughter partied together during this time, so it seems likely that contrary to other claims, Daniel was not abandoned solely to Virgies care except in short spurts.
The relationship between Virgie Arthur and her daughter seems to have ebbed and flowed between closeness and estrangement since Annas teens. While the last estrangement was the longest, it was not the first, as indicated by Annas testimony in the Marshall case.
While Annas half-sister Donna Hogan stated that she was envious of Annas early years, it is apparent that Hogan, who was never in Annas childhood home, had no basis for her belief that Anna had a good childhood. Hogan was never close to Anna as a child or as an adult. Her tell-all book is useless as a biography about Annas true life, but it does have value in exploring the paternal side of Annas Texas family.
Besides Donald Hogan, previously mentioned, Hogans second wife, Wanda Atkinson (the mother of Donna, Amy and Donald, Jr.) has spent time in and out of mental institutions. All three of her and Hogans children have a history of drug use. Donna Hogan, in a Cindy Adams interview, says, Well, yeah, Ive done drugs . . . weve both had a wild, crazy life . . . and like her, I worked in gentlemens clubs. Theres perverts who just want you to get drunk with them. So Id sit and drink. You could make $2000 a night. For Amy Hogan, drugs were more than a recreational habit. According to Donna, Amy lost custody of her children due to gross neglect, and spent time homeless due to a pervasive methamphetamine addiction.
Donna Hogan also claims in Train Wreck that she once tried to initiate an on-air reunion between Virgie Arthur and the estranged grandson she had not seen in several years. According to Hogan, Virgie was offered $20,000 by the network for her participation, but Virgie wanted more money and turned the opportunity down when her demands were not met. Her claim has not been verified or denied by any network.
As of this writing, Virgie Mae Arthur is in the Bahamas, seeking rights not normally bestowed upon a grandmother. She is seeking the right to sue for wrongful death on behalf of Annas estate, and partial custody and/or court-ordered visitation rights. She is also asking that she be made sole custodian of Dannielynn in the event of Larry Birkheads death. To this end, she has hired infamous Texas attorney John OQuinn, whose specialty is multi-million dollar lawsuits and class action cases, not family law. OQuinn is no stranger to controversy. His firm hired the lead FBI agent that was supposed to be investigating OQuinns possible malfeasance in a tobacco settlement. Presently, he is being taken to court for not paying out to victims the millions he won on their behalf in a judgement against a breast implant manufacturer.
Arthur posits herself as a stable personality. She points to her twenty-eight year career in law enforcement and middle-class status as proof of her ability to care for and nurture a child. It should be noted that Arthur had this same career and status while her own children were growing up, and that it saved none of them from what appears to be an intense, pervasive and long-term cycle of family abuse. Arthur was clearly unable to break that cycle in her own life. Neither her career nor income status produced an ability to break free from the torments of familial victimization.
As a longtime advocate of childrens issues, I understand that Arthur was also once a victim. I have no desire to publicly admonish her for being unable to break a cycle of abuse. Many people in similar situations never find the tools to do so. It takes an enormous amount of strength, courage and will to end an habitually abusive family culture, especially when that is the only one structure a person has ever known. I do not, as some others do, find Virgie Arthur evil. However, given her history and her recent demands, I do not believe she is acting in the best interests of her granddaughter, or that her motives are purely well-intentioned. Instead, it appears to me that Arthur, whether conscious of it or not, is acting within a structure founded on the principles of abuse.
By demanding rights not normally afforded to a grandmother, she is seeking not only some control over her granddaughters destiny, but of Larry Birkheads as well. In seeking joint custody or court-ordered visitation, and labeling her own household and family as good, it is clear that Arthur has not come to terms with the extent of her own familys torturous cycle. Left with unsupervised visits, there is no telling whose lap Dannielynn will fall into, and given the familys history this should be a cause for great concern, if not outright alarm.
Lastly, as the father of Dannielynn, it is Birkheads decision whether to pursue legal claims on her behalf. By aligning herself with an attorney like OQuinn and seeking to file a separate wrongful death claim of her own, Arthur is clearly acting for her own motives, without true regard for Dannielynn or the childs father. A grandmother who once said that all she wanted was for Dannielynn to live with her biological father, and to be able to be a grandma has morphed into a woman seeking to no small amount of control over a granddaughter, a father, and a deceased daughters estate. One of the hallmarks of an abusive personality is the attempt to exercise inappropriate control over the lives of others. I believe that Arthurs attempts to wrestle control from Birkhead, and those whom Anna trusted to oversee her affairs, show that Arthur has not recovered from her past, but is still actively perpetuating the cycle of abuse that has dominated her family for at least several decades.
Editors Note: Article was edited 4/18 for content, and removed 4/20 at the request of a party involved. Reposted 4/24 after controversial, but public information made its way to recognized news sources.
