Lisa Marie Presley, only child of Elvis Presley, dies at 54

WEST HILLS, Calif. — Lisa Marie Presley — the only child of Elvis Presley — died Thursday after being hospitalized earlier that day, her mother said in a statement. The singer was 54.

“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla Presley said in a statement. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”

The announcement came just hours after Priscilla Presley had confirmed that Lisa Marie Presley was rushed to the hospital earlier in the day.

Los Angeles County paramedics were dispatched to a Calabasas home at 10:37 a.m. following a report of a woman in full cardiac arrest, according to Craig Little, a spokesperson for the county’s fire department. Property records indicate Presley was a resident at that address.

Paramedics arrived about six minutes later, Little said. A subsequent statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said paramedics performed CPR and “determined the patient had signs of life” before taking her to a hospital in nearby West Hills immediately.

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Both Lisa Marie and her mother attended the Golden Globes ceremony on Tuesday night where the star of the feature film “Elvis,” Austin Butler, received the best actor award for his portrayal of the king of rock and roll in the Baz Luhrmann movie.

Lisa Marie also was in Memphis earlier this week to take part in celebrations for what would have been Elvis’ 88th birthday on Jan. 8. Local media reports say she appeared to be dealing with a case of the sniffles but signed autographs and posed for selfies with fans outside Graceland, Elvis’ landmark home and tourism destination.

A musician herself, Lisa Marie released three albums, including “To Whom It May Concern” (2003), “Now What” (2005) and “Storm & Grace” (2012).

She brought her Storm and Grace Tour to the Bottom Lounge in Chicago in June of 2012 in support of the album, and threw out the first pitch at the Cubs-Sox game in what was then U.S. Cellular Field, prior to her concert that night. She made her Chicago singing debut in 2003, opening for Chris Isaak at the House of Blues.

Presley had been wed four times, including brief marriages to singer Michael Jackson and actor Nicolas Cage. Her other two marriages were to actor Danny Keough and most recently to musician Michael Lockwood. She was the mother of four children, including model-actress Riley Keough, and twin daughters Harper and Finley Lockwood. Her son, Benjamin Keough, died by suicide in 2020.

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“My mother is certainly an inspiration to me,” Riley Keough told People magazine in a December interview. “I was raised by somebody who did their own thing and didn’t really care what other people thought. She was definitely inspirational to me.”

Presley had recently penned an essay published in People about “the horrific reality” of her grief following Benjamin Keough’s death by suicide in 2020.

“I’ve dealt with death, grief and loss since the age of 9 years old. I’ve had more than anyone’s fair share of it in my lifetime and somehow, I’ve made it this far,” she wrote in August.

Presley, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, shared her father’s brooding charisma — the hooded eyes, the insolent smile, the low, sultry voice — and followed him professionally, releasing her own rock albums, and appearing on stage with Pat Benatar and Richard Hawley, among others.

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She even formed direct musical ties with her father, joining her voice to such Elvis recordings as “In the Ghetto” and “Don’t Cry Daddy,” a mournful ballad which had reminded him of the early death of his mother (and Lisa Marie’s grandmother), Gladys Presley.

“It’s been all my life,” she told The Associated Press in 2012, speaking of her father’s influence. “It’s not something that I now listen to and it’s different. Although I might listen closer. I remain consistent on the fact that I’ve always been an admirer. He’s always influenced me.”

Her birth, nine months exactly after her parents’ wedding, was international news and her background was rarely far from her mind. With the release last year of “Elvis,” Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley had been attending red carpets and award shows alongside stars from the film.

Presley lived with her mother, an actor known for “Dallas” and the “Naked Gun” movies, in California after her parents split up in 1973. She recalled early memories of her dad during her visits to Graceland, riding golf carts through the neighborhood and seeing his daily entrances down the stairs.

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“He was always fully, fully geared up. You’d never see him in his pajamas coming down the steps, ever,” she told The Associated Press in 2012. “You’d never see him in anything but ‘ready to be seen’ attire.”

Elvis Presley died in August 1977, when he was just 42, and she 9 years old. Lisa Marie was staying at Graceland at the time and would recall him kissing her goodnight hours before he would collapse and never recover. When she next saw him, the following day, he was lying face down in the bathroom.

“I just had a feeling,” she told Rolling Stone in 2003. “He wasn’t doing well. All I know is I had it (a feeling), and it happened. I was obsessed with death at a very early age.”

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She would later make headlines of her own due to struggles with drugs and two very public marriages.

Jackson and Presley were married in the Dominican Republic in 1994, but the marriage ended two years later and was defined by numerous awkward public appearances, including an unexpected kiss from Jackson during the MTV Video Music Awards, and a joint interview with Diane Sawyer when she defended her husband against allegations he had sexually abused a minor.

Her other celebrity marriage was even shorter: Cage filed for divorce after four months of marriage in 2002.

“I had to sort of run into many walls and trees,” she told the AP in 2012. “But now I can also look back at it and tell you all the stuff that was going on around me and all the different people around me and all the awww — and it was not a good situation anyway. That wasn’t helping. Either way, it was a growing process. It was just in a different way. It was just out in front of everybody all the time. Because it’s all documented of course.”

Lisa Marie became involved in numerous humanitarian causes, from anti-poverty programs administered through the Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation to relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. She would receive formal citations from New Orleans and Memphis, Tennessee, for her work.

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Lisa Marie became the sole heir of the Elvis Presley Trust after her father died. Along with Elvis Presley Enterprises, the trust managed Graceland and other assets until she sold her majority interest in 2005. She retained ownership of Graceland Mansion itself, the 13 acres around it and items inside the home. Her son is buried there, along with her father and other members of the Presley family.

Lisa Marie Presley was a former Scientologist — her son was born in 1992 under guidelines set by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, according to an AP story at the time — but later broke with Scientology.

After her first album came out in 2003, some fans came out to see her perform just out of curiosity given her famous family, she told the AP in 2005.

“First I had to overcome a pre-speculated idea of me,” she said of the barriers to becoming a singer-songwriter.

“I had to sort of burst through that and introduce myself, and that was the first hurdle, and then now sing in front of everybody, and then that was the second one, and I’m the offspring of — you know, who I’m the offspring of — I had a few hurdles to get through, no doubt about it,” she continued. “But the scales never tipped in the other direction too much.”

Contributing: Miriam Di Nunzio, Sun-Times