Lisa Marie Presley, Daughter of Elvis, Is Dead at 54
Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, passed away at the age of 54 after experiencing cardiac arrest in her California home.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” is the heartbreaking announcement made by Priscilla Presley today of daughter Lisa Marie. Deadline reports that the actress, singer, and celebrity offspring has passed away at 54 of cardiac arrest after being rushed to the hospital Thursday morning. Lisa Marie Presley was famously the daughter of Elvis and bore a striking resemblance to her famous father.
It had been a busy week for Lisa Marie Presley, as celebrations of Elvis’s January 8 birthday saw her traveling between Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, and Los Angeles. She also attended the Golden Globe Awards on Tuesday night with her mother Priscilla to support actor Austin Butler, who played the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll in the Baz Luhrmann film Elvis. Austin Butler won the Golden Globe for Best Actor – Drama for playing the titular character and Lisa Marie’s real-life father.
However, Thursday morning, police and emergency personnel in Calabasas, California responded to a call at the Presley residence, indicating that someone was in cardiac arrest, and rushed her to the hospital once she was stabilized. She was placed on life support and listed in critical condition before she passed away. She is survived by her mother Priscilla and children Riley, Harper, and Finlay.
While being the child of one of the most famous performers of the 20th century left its mark on her life, Lisa Marie Presley distinguished herself in a variety of ways, both professionally and philanthropically. Elvis Presley died in 1977 when Lisa Marie Presley was only 9 years old, and shortly after she became the sole heir to the entire Presley estate. Elvis doted on her, even naming his private plane Lisa Marie in honor of his daughter.
She had two famous and high-profile marriages, to Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage, but it was her time with the King of Pop that grabbed the most headlines, as this was a merging of two massive musical dynasties. Although they divorced in 1996, they maintained a friendship that lasted until the pop star’s mysterious death in 2009. Lisa Marie Presley was married two other times, to musician Danny Keough and music producer Michael Lockwood (both of whom she had children with), but was not married when she passed on Thursday evening.
While she did try her hand at music and was generally acclaimed for her style, she made her mark doing philanthropic work under the Presley name, including the Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation. Her involvement as executor of the Presley estate saw her affiliated with Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network and providing aid to alleviate homelessness and improve literacy in Graceland’s hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. Lisa Marie Presley was praised by the city of Memphis for her work in helping improve the lives of its citizens.
The death of Lisa Marie Presley is almost as shocking and sudden a loss as that of her father Elvis, and condolences go to her mother, her children, and her other surviving family and friends. Her last hours spent in an induced coma in critical condition were the end of another tragic chapter in her family history. May she and her memory rest in peace.
