Lisa Marie PresleyLisa Marie Presley, a singer and the daughter of Elvis Presley, has passed away at the age of 54.Axl Rose performsAxl Rose performs during Lisa Marie Presley’s memorial service in Memphis on January 22, 2023. After being hospitalised for a medical emergency, she died Jan. 12 and was buried on the property next to her son Benjamin Keough, her father Elvis Presley, and his parents.The-memorialDuring-the-memorial-service-for-Lisa-Marie-Presley-fans-pay-their-respects-at-her-tomb.Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie PresleyA timeline of the relationship between Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley, who is Elvis Presley’s daughter.
Lisa Marie Presley was the daughter of Elvis Presley. At her funeral on Sunday, she was remembered as a loving mother and a “old soul” who went through tragedy but kept going to protect her father’s legacy as a pioneer of rock ‘n’ roll and a pop icon.
On a grey, cold Memphis morning, more than a thousand people gathered on the front lawn of Graceland to mourn the death of Lisa Marie Presley and remember her life. She died on January 12 after being taken to a hospital in California.
Some of the people who were sad waited for the service to start under the tall trees on the Graceland lawn, which is where Lisa Marie and her father lived when she was a child. Lisa Marie Presley used to own the mansion, which is now a museum and tourist spot. Each year, hundreds of thousands of Elvis fans come to the mansion to remember the life and music of Elvis, who died at age 42 in 1977.
On Sunday, the property in south Memphis brought back sad memories. The service started with Jason Clark & The Tennessee Mass Choir singing “Amazing Grace.”
“We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the love, kindness, and support you have shown our family during this hard time,” the Presley family said in a message on the service programme. “We will be thankful forever.”
Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie’s mother and an actor, spoke at the service. So did Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, Jerry Schilling, a close friend of Elvis’s, and former Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton, who called Lisa Marie’s parents Memphis’ royal couple and a “conduit to the throne, the keeper of the flame.”
In a soft voice, Priscilla Presley read “The Old Soul,” a poem written by one of Lisa Marie’s three daughters. In it, Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood calls her mother “an icon, a role model, and a superhero to many people all over the world.”
“She came into the world in 1968, tired and weak but strong. “She was fragile, but full of life,” Priscilla Presley said. “She always knew she wouldn’t be here for too long. With a look from her green eye, her childhood goes by. She then started her own family.”
Priscilla Presley said, “Our heart is broken” after she read the poem. We all love you, Lisa.”
The service was broken up with music. The Smashing Pumpkins’ lead singer, Billy Corgan, played acoustic guitar and sang “To Sheila;” Alanis Morissette sang “Rest;” The Blackwood Brothers Quartet played two songs, and Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose played the piano and sang “November Rain.”
After the service, mourners walked through Graceland’s Meditation Garden, where she was laid to rest in an above-ground grave next to her son Benjamin Keough, who died in 2020, as well as her grandparents and great grandmother.
Flowers in red, white, yellow, and pink were used to decorate the path to the grave and the tomb itself. Some fans had tears in their eyes as they walked slowly past the tomb and stopped to pay their respects.
Jordan Clark, who is 25 years old, came to the service from Mobile, Alabama. She said that the ceremony was unique and touching. Clark said that Lisa Marie “went through a lot” in her life and compared the service to when Elvis died and “people came from all over” to pay their respects.
“She was born into fame and the public eye. Some people find that hard to do,” Clark said. “She dealt with it like a pro. I believe.”
Lisa Marie was nine years old when her dad died. She was staying at Graceland at the time, and she remembered that hours before he died, he kissed her goodnight. The next day, when she saw him again, he was lying on his back in the bathroom.
After her father died, she was the only heir to the Elvis Presley Trust, which managed Graceland and other assets along with Elvis Presley Enterprises until 2005, when she sold the majority of her shares. She still owned the mansion, the 13 acres around it, and the things inside it.
An Elvis Presley Enterprises representative told The Associated Press that the mansion is in a trust that will help her children. She also has two other daughters, Riley Keough and Finley Aaron Love Lockwood, who will carry on after her.
Actor Riley Keough did not say anything at the service. Ben Smith-Petersen, her husband, read a statement in which she talked about how Lisa Marie took her out for ice cream, brought her tea sets from Cracker Barrel, and put notes in her lunchbox.
Riley Keough said in the statement, “Thank you for giving me strength, heart, empathy, courage, sense of humour, manners, temper, wildness, and tenacity.” “You made me with your heart.”
This story was first told in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
