I’m just sayin’, and no need for you to take offense. It seems she was popular in the '40s and a little before my time. And I’m not that young, I’m 50. I’m sorry, but I’m willing to bet that on the day she passes, there will be no “the world has just come to a stop” media frenzy of the kind that ANS’s death generated. And that was what the OP was asking. Not “will you miss her?” but will the media go overboard in keeping it a topic of conversation for a week and a half? And that was the spirit in which I answered. I’m sure you and others will remember her fondly, but speaking for myself only, her death will generate no sense of loss for me.
If we’re including current or former heads of state/government; Fidel Castro, George W. Bush, and Kim Jong-Il (NK state TV coverage of that would be fun to watch 
).
If you’re really going to use Anna Nicole Smith as the example I’m going to say
Carrot Top
Pauly Shore
Tina Yothers
Ron Jeremy
David Blaine
John Tesh
Andy Garcia
Rob Schneider
Mandy Moore
and Hillary Duff
No kidding. I was just thinking about that the other day. I suspect he’ll have the option of being buried in the Texas State Cemetery if he so desires.
I knew who Vera Lynn was, but really, it’s a valid point. Why would Vera Lynn, of all people, have a particularly circus-like, media-feeding-frenzy death? She’s led a relatively quiet and dignified life in her golden years. She’ll get lots of respectful obits; you don’t really think it will become a weird joke like Smith’s death, do you?
-Lindsay Lohan
-either of the Olsen twins
-William Shatner
-Mick Jagger or Keith Richards
-Elton John
-Teddy Kennedy
-Simon Cowell
-Paula Abdul
-Madonna
I am suprised that no one has mentioned Courtney Love. Mainly because with her past antics, I imagine that she is going to go out in her own, unique style (and probably take a lot of people with her).
Slee
Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
Do you remember how she said that we would meet again some sunny day?
(The Mad Hermit beat me to it.)
I think its hard to predict.
Celebrity events turn into feeding frenzy because the media chooses to do so. If someone has the bad fortune to die right before or after someone bigger - or messier - what could have been a major deal can turn into a blip. Likewise, if the news is taken up with something else (like real news - I don’t know, like maybe a war or something).
Phil Hartman died pretty badly, and while it certainly made the news, it didn’t create a feeding frenzy. And some celebrities are huge and seminal, but die relatively quiet deaths with a sort of “we regret that Jimmy Stewart has died” and a TCM retrospective.
Well, I nominate for deep sorrow upon passing:
Bill Cosby
Dick Van Dyke
Steven Tyler
Mick Jagger
Rod Stewart
I was taken aback when John Ritter died. There are some national treasures in performers that will hit the US like when Elvis or Princess Di passed. Mass mourning, etc.
At least she’s not like the little boy that Santa Claus forgot.
Vera, Vera, what has become of you?
Hmmmmm does anybody else here feel the way I do?
I’m more curious to know why anyone other than a Parrothead thinks Jimmy Buffett is anywhere near relevant.
Along these lines, Mother Teresa died a couple of days after Princess Diana did, and consequently her death received almost no media attention.
Especially when they are found dead together as part of a heroin fueled sex suicide.
I think the “questionable circumstances” play a bigger part in the media frenzy aspect. If ANS had been ill for a while and died, it wouldn’t have been nearly the feeding frenzy that an OD generated (combined with a newborn, a recently OD’d son, and the media circus that was her life). Likewise with say Willie Nelson. If he dies in his sleep, it’ll be a celebrity death with some remembrance. If he dies in a shootout with police while robbing a bank to pay off the IRS, it’ll be more of a blip on the media radar.
Abe Vigoda. 
Sean Connery!
I’m making an assumption that you didn’t have to wiki anything to know the term Parrothead. If so, that kind of proves my point. He’s as relevant as anything in pop culture/music ever is. His concert continue to sell out. He’s expanded his “brand” with restaurants & booze.
I would offer that his general visibility today vastly exceeds that of any of the ex-Beatles. So how is he not relevant?