Elvis Presley’s famous Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, is staying in the family following the death of his daughter.
Lisa Marie Presley inherited the 13.8-acre, 23-room estate from her rock’n’roll legend father after he died in 1977, when she was nine. She died on Thursday at the age of 54 after a cardiac arrest.
A representative of Graceland told People that the property will now be passed on to Lisa Marie’s three daughters, Riley, Harper and Finley. Graceland, which offers public tours of the mansion as well as sprawling museum exhibits, is reportedly the second-most visited home museum in the US after the White House, attracting more than 600,000 guests a year.
Elvis’s only child and a musician in her own right, Lisa Marie was born nine months to the day after the wedding of her father and mother, Priscilla Presley. She spent her early years living at Graceland. When she was five, her parents divorced and she moved with her mother to Los Angeles, though she would often fly back to Memphis to visit her dad at Graceland.
Following Elvis’s death, he left Lisa Marie ownership of the Graceland estate through a trust fund set up in her benefit. That trust dissolved when she turned 25 in 1993, giving her full ownership of the property, which now hosts popular public tours and sits next to museums honoring Elvis’s life and career.
Lisa Marie spent her final years managing Graceland alongside her mother and the National Bank of Commerce through another trust which she established.
Their management of Graceland and its displays was credited with not just steering Elvis’s legacy but continuing to keep his fame alive. Lisa Marie reportedly found great personal meaning and purpose in her management of Graceland, in addition to her own musical career, as she overcame the heartbreaks associated with her father’s death as well as her four marriages, including one to the superstar musician Michael Jackson at the height of his popularity.
As well as pursuing a singing career that saw her release three albums, Lisa Marie had two children from a marriage to Danny Keough: the actor Riley Keough, 33, and Benjamin, who killed himself in summer 2020 when he was 27. She also had twin daughters, Harper and Finley, 14, with Michael Lockwood, whom she divorced in 2021.
Riley, Harper and Finley are now set to be the beneficiaries of the Graceland trust. A representative for Riley Keough confirmed that the plan was for Lisa Marie to be buried on the grounds of Graceland next to Benjamin.
In a statement on Graceland’s official Twitter account, the Presley family described itself as “shocked and devastated” by the death of Lisa Marie, who two days earlier had attended the Golden Globes, where the actor Austin Butler won an award for his portrayal of her father in last year’s Baz Luhrmann movie Elvis.
“My heart is completely shattered for Riley, Finley, Harper and Priscilla,” Butler said in a statement. “I am eternally grateful for the time I was lucky enough to be near [Lisa Marie’s] bright light and will forever cherish the quiet moments we shared.”
