Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley’s only daughter, died suddenly on January 12. She was just 54 years old.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” her mother, Priscilla Presley said in a statement.
“She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss.”
Lisa Marie was honored by friends and fans alike at a Graceland memorial service on January 22. Her mother, Priscilla Presley, read a poem by one of Lisa’s three daughters.
“In 1968, she entered our world, born tired, fragile, yet strong,” she said. “She was delicate, but was filled with life. She always knew she wouldn’t be here too long. Childhood passes by, with a glimpse of her green eye. She then grew a family of her own.”
After she’d finished reading, Priscilla Presley said: “Our heart is broken. Lisa, we all love you.”
Here’s more on Lisa Marie’s sudden death, and extraordinary life.
Autopsy shows Presley died due to a small bowel obstruction
Presley died as a result of complications from earlier weight-loss surgery, her autopsy report says. Specifically, she died of a “sequelae of a small bowel obstruction” — a blockage in the small intestine. Per CNN, this can come about due to things like scar tissue or cancer, which can lead to bowel tissue dying or perforating, causing death.
Deputy medical examiner Dr. Juan M. Carrillo told CNN that Presley’s obstruction resulted from adhesions (aka, scar tissue) that “developed after bariatric surgery years ago.” He added that this is a known long-term complication of this procedure.
As CNN notes, Carrillo also reviewed the autopsy toxicology results. These revealed “therapeutic” levels of oxycodone in Presley’s blood. “Therapeutic” indicates a medically appropriate range, rather than a dangerous amount. He noted the presence of quetapine metabolite (which is often used to treat schizophrenia, manic episodes and depression) and buprenorphine (a painkiller which is also used for the treatment of opioid addiction), but said the drugs were “not contributory to death.”
“There is no evidence of injury or foul play. The manner of death is deemed natural,” Carrillo concluded.
Presley was discovered “unresponsive”
Presley was reportedly discovered unresponsive at home at about 10:30 in the morning. Per TMZ, ex-husband Danny Keough, who lived on the property, performed CPR. She was taken to the hospital and died just hours later.
Rita Wilson, whose husband, Tom Hanks, played Elvis’s manager Col Tom Parker in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic Elvis last year, posted her own tribute on Instagram.
“Tom and I had spent some time with the family during the Elvis movie promotional tour,” she wrote. “Lisa Marie was so honest and direct, vulnerable, in a state of anticipation about the movie. She spoke so eloquently about her father, what the movie meant to her, that it was a celebration of her dad.
She had her gorgeous daughters Finley and Harper with her who made us all laugh. She privately showed us her home, Graceland, and she made it feel like home to us. She was so gracious to us, Austin, Baz, and guests.”
Presley was last seen in public on Tuesday at the Golden Globe awards, which she attended with Priscilla to support the film, which chronicles Elvis’s legendary rise to fame. She was born in 1968, the year her father made his triumphant return to the stage following a 7-year hiatus. His TV comeback special, Elvis, garnered such an exuberant response that it led to an extended Las Vegas residency and multiple tours.
Stepping out of her father’s shadow
Presley, who was also a singer, admitted to Larry King that she had to “park” the feelings of pressure that came from being the child of arguably the most successful performer of all time. She said that she’d “always wanted” to be a singer since the age of three, but wanted to develop as an artist and writer outside of the public eye.
Her debut album, To Whom It May Concern, was released in 2003 and reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Presley wrote nearly all of the lyrics herself, a standard she maintained on later records.
Her third album, Storm & Grace, came out in 2012. A review on AllMusic said: “On her first two albums, Lisa Marie Presley wanted to be a pop star with a difference; on Storm & Grace, she clearly would rather be an artist, and if she’s still working her musical shortcomings out of her system, this is a stronger, more mature, and more effective work than one might have expected.
Nearly ten years into a recording career she may or may not have wanted, Presley is finally developing a musical personality that truly suits her.”
Alongside her music career, Presley was heavily involved in humanitarian work via the Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation (EPCF), of which she was chairperson. Through the foundation, Presley worked to offer housing support to homeless people, as well as access to musical instruments for kids and assistance for students majoring in the arts. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Presley teamed up with Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network to help.
“I’m here,” she said, “because I definitely needed to do something, and it just so happens this is where I’m from. I’m going to do everything I can. People need help—this is a huge catastrophe and everyone needs to stand up.”
Presley’s personal life
Presley was no stranger to heartache herself. In an essay for People last year, she wrote that she had carried grief around with her since she was nine years old, when she lost her father to a heart attack aged 42. “I’ve had more than anyone’s fair share of it in my lifetime and somehow, I’ve made it this far,” she said.
Presley was with her father at Graceland, Memphis, when people tried to revive him after he was discovered on the bathroom floor on August 16, 1977. Elvis and Priscilla had divorced several years previously, but though her mother shouldered the main responsibility for raising her, Presley still spent a lot of time with her father.
As she watched the effort to resuscitate him, Presley asked: “What’s wrong with my daddy? Something’s wrong with my daddy, and I’m going to find out.”
She was largely sheltered from the public eye after that, but struggled with drug use — sedatives, marijuana, and cocaine — behind closed doors. Presley credited Scientology with bringing that period to a close. She was 20 years old — and already pregnant — when she married for the first time.
Danny Keough, who Presley married in 1988 and divorced in 1994, was the first of her four husbands. The pair remained incredibly close, and he played bass in her band. She later wed (and subsequently divorced) singer Michael Jackson, actor Nicolas Cage, and music producer Michael Lockwood.
At the news of Presley’s passing, LaToya Jackson, Michael’s sister, tweeted: “I will never forget how much you shared the love you had for my brother with me, I thank you for being so honest #RIP.”
The final years of Presley’s life were overcast with tragedy after her beloved son, Benjamin Keough, died by suicide in 2020 at the age of 27. In an essay for National Grief Awareness Day last September, Presley said that she would always carry the feeling of deep loss.
“My and my three daughters’ lives as we knew it were completely detonated and destroyed by his death. We live in this every. Single. Day,” she wrote. “Grief is something you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life, in spite of what certain people or our culture wants us to believe. You do not ‘get over it,’ you do not ‘move on,’ period.”
“I keep going for my girls,” she continued. “I keep going because my son made it very clear in his final moments that taking care of his little sisters and looking out for them were on the forefront of his concerns and his mind. He absolutely adored them and they him.”
