Oil Tycoon J. Howard Marshall Ii

HOUSTON - Oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, who made headlines last year when he married 26-year-old former Playmate of the Year Anna Nicole Smith, died Saturday. He was 90.

Born in Philadelphia, Marshall earned a bachelor's degree at Haverford College and attended Yale Law School. He was an assistant professor at Yale.

In 1933, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes asked Marshall to work for the government. He co-authored the Code of Fair Competition for the Petroleum Industry that year and drafted the executive order creating the National Petroleum Council in 1946.

A battle over Marshall's estate - reportedly worth about $550 million - has been brewing for months. Smith, playmate of the year in 1993, and Marshall's son, Pierce Marshall, went to court last February to fight over the fortune. Court papers filed then described the senior Marshall as "an incapacitated adult."

The money wound up being put in a trust and Smith largely was cut off from the funds. The same week, Smith complained of financial trouble on a tabloid TV show. She professed her love for Marshall and said she performed her "wife duties."