Born on Feb. 1, 1968, in Memphis, Tenessee, to parents Elvis and Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley was one of the biggest celebrity children upon her birth. However, she passed at the age of 54 on Jan. 12, 2023, after being rushed to the emergency room when she was found unresponsive in her California home.
Lisa Marie was born exactly nine months after her parents famously tied the knot in a brief ceremony in their suite at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. After Elvis’s death in 1977, she was listed as a beneficiary on her father’s last will, along with her grandfather Vernon and great-grandmother Minnie. However, Vernon passed in 1979, and Minnie a year after. This made Lisa Marie the only surviving beneficiary of Elvis’s trust. In 1993, she inherited her father’s estate, which had grown to $100 million.
She was the only daughter of Elvis, which means that her four children were his only grandchildren. Lisa Marie had actress Riley Keough and her late son Benjamin Keough with her ex-husband Danny Keough while she shared her twins, Harper and Finley, with her estranged and divorced husband, Michael Lockwood. She was also famously married to popstar Michael Jackson and actor Nicolas Cage.
Following in the footsteps of her father, Lisa Marie ventured into the music business, releasing a few albums and some songs and making her mark as a singer and songwriter in her own right. Prior to her tragic passing, she put her talent on show in a series of duets with her late father, many of which struck a chord with fans of the “King of Rock and Roll” as well as her own.
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Just before Lisa Marie’s birth, her famous father, Elvis, was going through somewhat of a career low. Elvis had risen to fame on the back of his many musical hits as well as his successful film career. Elvis was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. Known for hits such as “Jailhouse Rock,” “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” Elvis’s music career took off with his first No. 1 hit “Heartbreak Hotel” in 1956. Acting-wise, he starred in a total of 33 films, including “Jailhouse Rock,” “Blue Hawaii,” “King Creole,” “Viva Las Vegas” and “Flaming Star.”
Elvis was drafted into the army in March 1958. After basic training, he was deployed to Germany on Oct. 1, 1958. It was there that Cupid’s arrow struck a year later during a party Elvis hosted in Bad Nauheim, Germany. Priscilla Beaulieu – as she was known then – was a doll-faced 14-year-old angel who caught his eye.
On Mar. 2, 1960, Elvis returned to the United States. While he could leave the army behind, he couldn’t forget Priscilla. Their love affair led Priscilla to join Elvis in Graceland. After many visits, Priscilla’s parents let her move with Elvis to Tennessee in 1963, and the two tied the knot in 1967.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2012, Priscilla talked about her life and relationship with Elvis. It was widely reported that Elvis groomed her as a teenager, making her dress and look the way he wanted her to. Priscilla explained:
“After we got married in May 1967, when I was 21, I got pregnant straight away. Initially, I was devastated. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, here I am married and now I’m pregnant and I’m not going to look attractive anymore.’ It was certainly a rocky time.”
Elvis Presley (1968), (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)Although the pair divorced in 1973, they remained friendly, raising their daughter, Lisa Marie, together. Following her parent’s separation, Lisa Marie would split her time between Los Angeles, where she lived with her mother, and Maryland, where her dad resided.
According to “Elvis: My Dad, a biography written for Lisa Marie,” written by David Adler and Ernest Andrews, Elvis would “let Lisa Marie run wild.”
“As soon as she learned how to ride her bike, she was a terror in the house, cruising around the formal dining room table,” they wrote.
“Elvis found it impossible to raise his voice to her. At most a firm ‘Lisa’ was all he could manage.”
Despite her special treatment, however, Lisa Marie never thought of herself as spoiled by her dad.
“I don’t think I looked at it as being spoiled,” she said in an interview with Stina Dabrowski.
“I think that I looked at it as my father loved me and didn’t get to spend a lot of time with me. And when he did, he wanted to go out of his way to do whatever I needed to do to make me seemingly happy,” Lisa Marie added.
When Lisa Marie was 9 years old, tragedy would strike; at the age of 42, Elvis died of cardiovascular failure on Aug. 16. Even more tragic, his daughter would find him lifeless that day on the bathroom floor.
“I don’t like talking about this,” the singer-songwriter told Radar Online in 2018. “It was 4 a.m. I was supposed to be asleep, actually. He found me.”
Her doting dad had kissed her goodnight, which she added was “the last time (she) saw him alive.”
Lisa Marie Presley (2012), (Jerod Harris/WireImage)Despite her young age when her father passed, Lisa Marie went on to have a deep appreciation for his legacy, particularly his music. She, too, was hit by the music bug and pursued a career in the business. Her debut album, “To Whom It May Concern,” ended up reaching No.5 on the Billboard charts when it was released in 2003. She also began recording duets with her late father, including a version of his hit “Don’t Cry Daddy,” originally recorded on Jan. 15, 1969.
Songwriter Mac Davis carefully wrote these words to allow Elvis to connect with families across the nation who were experiencing situations of family separation.
In 1997, Lisa Marie paid tribute to her iconic father by recording a video of the song with the addition of her singing it with him posthumously as a duet. The video was played at a concert for fans lucky enough to watch the father and daughter duo blend their voices together.
As images of Elvis singing the song live onstage filled the screen, viewers were already emotional, clapping and cheering as the twangs of the song chords continued. When Lisa Marie’s voice began to fill the hall, tremendous cheers rang out from the crowd. Clips of Lisa Marie in a sound booth with headphones on singing the song were played alongside images of her as a baby being cradled and embraced by her loving father. However, the loudest cheers from the crowd came when images of Lisa Marie and Elvis were played side by side in the same frame, with the former looking at his image as if he were really there.
The touching video was loved by fans then and now, after Lisa Marie’s passing, holds even more heart-rending meaning.
Don’t you feel like Elvis and Lisa Marie’s voices meld well together? Were you a fan of the music of either father or daughter? Let us know and be sure to pass this along to friends and family, too.
