Another big star died last week, but most of this world didn't know it.

Chubby Bubby.

Chubby Bubby Bumblesmorf.

Chubby Bubby Bumblesmorf of Bubbytown.

Her ex-Marine daddy had given her the nicknames, and a pink baseball cap that says "Girls Rule." Her real name was Morgan Jane. She was six months old.

She liked the wind in her face and the sound of thunderstorms and a soft pink stuffed horse that kept her green pacifier in her mouth, because she couldn't hold it herself.

She had red hair. She had a big golden dog that protected her. She had a light in her dark-blue eyes, especially when looking at her parents.

By the end, she had an oxygen tube in her nose and a tummy that moved up and down way too fast as she struggled to breathe. And yet she kept smiling.

She had spinal muscular atrophy, Type I. Her parents knew she'd have just a short time in this world.

Her dad tried to revive her Saturday night, but couldn't.

We wrote about her a few weeks back, about how her parents, Eric and Katie Sitzman, had made a vow to celebrate her life, that their home in south Lincoln would not feel like a morgue.

And it didn't.

You could tell that Thursday, in a home video they played at the funeral:

Eric and Katie are giving Chubby Bubby a bath. She lies in her baby tub, a pink washcloth on her tummy, her chubby legs floating in the water.

"Look at those legs!" Eric says.

Katie opens the bottle of baby wash and massages it into one leg and then the other. She pours water over her red hair, protecting her eyes with a hand.

"You just keeps getting cuter by the day," Eric says, in a high-pitched voice. "Do you know that?

"You're going to be sleeping through the night now. Aren't you, Bubby?"

On Thursday at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, she wore a beautiful dress and a bow in her hair. She had her pink stuffed horse at her side, and her green pacifier. She lay in a small, white casket, which they closed and carried to the front.

But she smiled again in the photos and video clips they played.

In another video, it seems to be late at night or early morning, just Eric and Morgan. She is babbling something that must be very important, by her inflection.

It's like, "Orrr orr orr. Arrr arr arr. …"

"What are you talking about?" Eric asks. "What are you talking about?"

She blinks, as if she's thinking about it. Then she babbles again, on and on. This made people who had been crying start to smile. Some even laughed.

Now that's star power.

The minister said he could think of no greater loss than the death of a baby, that it's a tragic reminder that bad things do happen to good people.

"But we can take comfort in the memories of this amazing baby girl. Morgan Jane - 'Chubby Bubby' - who taught us how to live."

Reach Colleen Kenney at 473-2655 or ckenney@journalstar.com.