A Daughter’s Tribute: Navigating Trauma and Love in Lisa Marie Presley’s Memoir

lisa marie presley

Upon the passing of Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley’s sole offspring, at the age of 54 last year, she imparted a heartfelt request to her daughter, Riley Keough: to complete her memoir using recorded tapes that captured their shared moments.

On the day of the memoir’s release, the BBC engaged in a conversation with Keough in New York regarding From Here to the Great Unknown, a narrative steeped in themes of trauma, addiction, loss, and profound sorrow.

“It was profoundly moving to witness her sharing this with the world, as it was a tale she held very dear,” expressed Keough, a reserved 35-year-old actress, on Tuesday.

In her memoir, Lisa Marie delves into the profound impact of her iconic father’s death when she was merely nine years old. For the first time, she recounts the harrowing afternoon of his passing in August 1977—awakening with an unsettling intuition that something was amiss, she rushed into his room only to find him lying facedown on the bathroom floor.

For two days, his body lay in an open casket at Graceland. Once the throngs departed, Lisa Marie Presley would tenderly approach him, “touching his face and holding his hand to converse with him.”

“As an adult, there were nights when I would drown my sorrows in drink, listening to his music, engulfed in tears. The grief lingers; it remains ever-present,” she confides.

Keough believes her mother never fully grappled with this traumatic event. As a child, she harbored anger towards her legendary grandfather, associating his melodies with her mother’s pain, feelings that persisted long after his demise.

Though the memoir holds memories of tender, intimate moments at Graceland, tragedy weaves through its fabric. The devastating loss of Lisa Marie’s son, Ben Keough, who tragically took his own life at the age of 27 in July 2020, resulted in such profound sorrow that his body remained in the family home on dry ice for two months prior to burial.

“Ben was the love of mom’s life,” Keough poignantly reflects, noting the deep spiritual connection they shared. She shared with the BBC that having extended time with his body allowed her mother to “collect her thoughts.”

“It seems to be rather typical in how we approach death in Western culture: it’s swift, and the grieving process is often overlooked,” she remarked. “The body is whisked away, the doors close, and there’s little opportunity to see or reflect. This is not how it’s managed in many other cultures.”

Following the death and interment of her son, Presley’s health deteriorated significantly. Keough reveals in her book her belief that her mother was ultimately succumbing to a broken heart.

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