The death of Elvis’ only daughter at the age of 54 is the latest in a long line of family tragedies. Her father died at the age of 42, while her son committed suicide at the age of 27
On Thursday, January 12, 2023, a new family tragedy occurred in the Presley family. Lisa Marie, singer, celebrity and only child of Elvis, died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles. He was only 54 years old.
Last August, Lisa Marie explained her relationship with loss in an essay she wrote for People magazine. “Death is a part of life whether we like it or not. So is grieving…Grieving is something you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life, despite what some people or our culture would like to believe. You don’t “get over it”, you don’t “move on”, period”.
She went on to talk about how her life has been marked by death, pain and loss since childhood. One only has to look at the newspaper archives… The history of the Presley family is full of divorces, early deaths, drugs and debt. It is a sad curse from which, generation after generation, family members have not been able to escape.
On August 16, 1977, Elvis died at the age of 42 at Graceland, his legendary home in Memphis. He was overweight, addicted to drugs, and had a group of friends and acquaintances that the press called the “Memphis Mafia,” who were not a good influence. On the evening of his death, the singer told his then-girlfriend, 20-year-old Ginger Alden, that he was going to the bathroom to read. She replied, “Okay, but don’t fall asleep,” according to the book “Elvis and Ginger.”
A few hours later, the King of Rock and Roll was found dead. In fact, they had to break the door to get into the bathroom. He was found with his pants down, his face covered in vomit and a love book in his hands, according to the book “The Death of Elvis.”
At first, people said he died of a heart attack, but the medical examiner’s report found that there was nothing wrong with his heart. Fourteen different drugs were found in Elvis’ body. The singer had been hospitalized several times for overdose. All these elements added mystery to an already enigmatic death, fueling rumors and even speculation that the King of Rock and Roll was not really dead.
But his death was not a lie to his daughter. He was only 9 years old at the time and was at home when it happened. In Lisa Marie and Priscilla’s 2005 memoir Elvis by the Presleys, she fondly recalls their relationship. “If he was in a good mood, it would be a great day. We would ride horses or go for golf cart rides,” he said.
“If he was happy, everyone was happy. He never tired you.” Upon his death, Lisa Marie inherited Graceland and 15% of his royalties.
Her mother, Priscilla Beaulieu, was 14 when she met Elvis, who was 24 at the time. They were both in Germany, where he was doing his military service and she was living with her family. “My God, I was talking to one of the most famous artists in the world and I thought he was one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen,” she recalled in an interview with “EL PAÍS” in 2017. According to the book “Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley”, the marriage was marred by infidelities and fights. Elvis played the perfect husband in Memphis, but went “wild” when he went to Los Angeles, where he stayed for long periods of time to make movies.
There, he rented a small palace, which was frequented by established and aspiring actors. The singer is said to have had affairs with Ann-Margret, Natalie Wood, Cybill Shepherd and Nancy Sinatra. As the decade progressed, drug use increased and the parties grew wilder. Priscilla had a tumultuous marriage to Elvis, but her divorce went much better: after they signed the papers, they are said to have left court hand in hand.
After the breakup, Priscilla tried her luck as an actress in the series “Dallas” and in the films “The Naked Gun”, but she was more successful as a businessman. As manager of Elvis’ estate she turned Graceland into a tourist attraction in 1982. Today, it is the second most visited mansion in the United States, behind only the White House.
When the inheritance passed to young Lisa Marie, she didn’t know how to handle it. He mishandled the sale of his song rights and mismanaged her estate. In 2018 she claimed she only had 10,000 euros left in the bank and 16 million in debt. For this she blamed her former manager, who defended himself by calling her wasteful.
Lisa Marie was slow to start her own music career for fear of not living up to her father’s standards. Her 2003 debut album, To Whom It May Concern, was supported by her producer, Alanis Morissette, and throughout her career she has collaborated with artists such as Pink. In the blues song “Lights Out,” he sang, “Somebody turned the lights out there in Memphis… That’s where my family’s buried and they’re gone…”
Her career never matched her father’s success. Last Sunday, January 8, she went to Graceland to celebrate the King of Rock and Roll’s birthday with hundreds of her fans. Last Tuesday, two days before her death, she walked the red carpet with her mother, Priscilla. They had been invited to the Golden Globes for the Elvis biography, one of the most successful films of the night.
Lisa Marie was a small star in the shadow of a huge star. Her last name made her a celebrity, and her famous relationships reinforced that perception. He was married and divorced four times. She only had children with her first and last (lesser known) husbands. She married her first husband, Danny Keough, in October 1988 in a ceremony in Morocco. At the time she was pregnant with her first child. Her mother thought her daughter was too young for marriage and children. He knew what he was talking about…
Lisa Marie and Keough became prominent members of Scientology. The couple raised their two children, Riley Keough and the late Benjamin Keough (he committed suicide), in the beliefs of the church.
From 1994 to 1996, Lisa Marie was married to Michael Jackson. The King of Pop and the daughter of the King of Rock and Roll became the oddest, most fascinating and media-friendly couple of the era. Her marriage to Nicolas Cage was less popular and lasted only four months. The actor released a statement saying he was “devastated” by his ex-wife’s death. “Lisa laughed more than anyone I’ve ever met,” Cage said.
Her fourth marriage lasted longer, but ended in the worst way. In January 2006, she married guitarist Michael Lockwood. In October 2008, they had two girls, twins Harper and Finley. A doctor prescribed medicated pills after giving birth and she became addicted. Ten years after her last marriage, drug-addicted and broke, Lisa Marie filed for divorce and accused her partner of possession of child pornography.
The dramas didn’t stop then. Her son Benjamin Storm Keough committed suicide at the age of 27. His body was found in July 2020 at the family’s mansion in Calabasas, California.
In the same essay, published five months before she died, Lisa Marie reflected on the grief and loss she had suffered: “If the loss was premature, unnatural, or tragic, you become an outcast in a sense. You may feel stigmatized and perhaps judged in some way for why the tragic loss happened. I’ve already been fighting and beating myself up tirelessly for years, blaming myself every day and that’s hard enough to live with now, but others will judge and blame you too. It’s a real choice to keep going, a choice I have to make every day and it’s constantly challenging, to say the least … But I keep going for my girls.”
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I am Frederick Tuttle, who works in 247 News Agency as an author and mostly cover entertainment news. I have worked in this industry for 10 years and have gained a lot of experience. I am a very hard worker and always strive to get the best out of my work. I am also very passionate about my work and always try to keep up with the latest news and trends.
