MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Lisa Marie Presley might be buried at Graceland, the famed residence of Elvis Presley that on Friday grew to become a gathering place for followers distraught over her death a day earlier.
The singer-songwriter’s closing resting place might be subsequent to her son, Benjamin Keough, who died in 2020, stated a consultant of her daughter and actor Riley Keough. Elvis and different members of the Presley household are additionally buried at Graceland.
Followers paid their respects at Graceland’s gates on Friday, writing messages on the stone wall, leaving flowers and sharing reminiscences of Elvis Presley’s solely little one, who was one of many final remaining touchstones to the icon whose affect and significance nonetheless resonates greater than 45 years after his personal sudden demise.
Lisa Marie Presley, 54, died Thursday, hours after being hospitalized for a medical emergency.
A singer-songwriter herself, Lisa Marie didn’t reside in Memphis, the place she was born. However she made trips to the city for celebrations of her father’s birth anniversary and commemorations of his demise, which surprised the world when he was discovered lifeless in his Graceland residence at age 42 on Aug. 16, 1977. She was in Memphis simply this previous Sunday, on what would have been her father’s 88th birthday.
Jason Merritt by way of Getty Photographs
Angela Ferraro was amongst these on Thursday night time who stopped by Graceland, the place the timber within the entrance garden have been adorned by inexperienced and pink lights. Followers took pictures and left flowers on the entrance gate on the chilly and windy night.
Ferraro and her fiance drove 25 minutes from Olive Department, Mississippi, to pay their respects. Ferraro stated she was a fan of Elvis’ music and of Lisa Marie’s — the couple listened to Lisa Marie’s music “Lights Out” on the drive north to Graceland.
“Elvis died younger, and so did she. And her son, his passing was very tragic as nicely,” stated Ferraro, 32. “It’s onerous and it’s devastating.”
Lisa Marie grew to become the only inheritor of the Elvis Presley Belief, which — together with Elvis Presley Enterprises — managed Graceland and different belongings till she offered her majority curiosity in 2005. She retained possession of the mansion itself, the 13 acres round it and gadgets inside the house.
A consultant from Elvis Presley Enterprises informed The Related Press that the mansion is in a belief that can go to the good thing about her youngsters — she’s survived by three daughters. The consultant didn’t have particulars on the timing of a funeral or burial.
Lisa Marie was 9 when her father died. She was staying at Graceland on the time and would recall him kissing her goodnight hours earlier than he died. When she subsequent noticed him, the next day, he was mendacity face down within the rest room.
“I simply had a sense,” she informed Rolling Stone in 2003. “He wasn’t doing nicely. All I do know is I had it (a sense), and it occurred. I used to be obsessive about demise at a really early age.”
Lisa Marie visited Graceland in 2012 to attend the opening of a brand new exhibit, “Elvis By way of His Daughter’s Eyes,” a private look that included her child footwear — her beginning, 9 months precisely after Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s wedding ceremony, was worldwide information — in addition to her first document participant and a small white fur coat.
Throughout an interview with the AP throughout that cease, she smiled when recalling the time spent along with her dad. She stated certainly one of her favourite gadgets was the important thing used to function a golf cart as a result of it helped her recall when she was alone along with her father, driving across the neighborhood.
“That was my life,” she stated. “I carried it all over the place. It was by no means removed from me or not on my individual after I was a toddler. I hadn’t seen it in 35 years.”
On Thursday, Sancelle Vance, 50, had taken the Graceland tour, which included a cease by Lisa Marie’s previous swing set and the grave of her son.
About an hour and a half later, Vance heard about Lisa Marie’s demise; the temper at The Visitor Home at Graceland, the lodge the place she is staying, grew to become somber. Vance, who determined to cease in Memphis whereas shifting from Mississippi to California, stated it was “surreal” that she was at Graceland on the day Lisa Marie died.
Kristen Sainato and her husband have been visiting Memphis from Cleveland when she heard the information of Lisa Marie’s demise on Thursday. She wore a black jacket with the well-known TCB lightning bolt (shorthand for caring for enterprise in a flash, a motto Elvis lived by) on the again as she described assembly Lisa Marie at a celebration of her father’s birthday. Sainato set down a bouquet of flowers on the entrance gate of Graceland, the place certainly one of two planes is known as for Lisa Marie.
“These are for Lisa,” she stated.
She stated Lisa Marie Presley was one of many final connections to her well-known father.
“Everyone seems to be shocked over this. Why? Why did this must occur?” Sainato stated, wiping tears from her eyes as she stood in entrance of the stone wall that borders the home-turned-museum. “She deserved a protracted, glad life.”