Remembering Lisa Marie Presley: This Elvis Week celebrates the King and his daughter

For Elvis Presley’s literal and extended family of loved ones, friends, former colleagues and fans, this week’s annual celebration of the life and legacy of the King of Rock ‘n' Roll might function like a refuge — something safe and fixed and solid — in a year roiled by triumph and tragedy.

The Elvis news was all good, for a while. Released last summer, director Baz Luhrmann’s epic biopic “Elvis” exceeded the expectations of most movie-industry prognosticators, earning $151 million at the North American box office — the most for any movie that year that wasn’t a sequel or superhero franchise addition — and garnering eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

But by the time the Oscar nominations were announced Jan. 24, the Elvis (and “Elvis”) world was in mourning: Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis’ beloved only child (and an active champion of the film), had died 12 days earlier, at 54, from what later was determined to be an after-effect of weight-loss surgery.

For the international Elvis community — especially for those who return to Memphis each year for “Elvis Week” and the Candlelight Vigil procession to the Elvis grave site at the Graceland mansion — the news was traumatic. Mourning her as if she were a family member, hundreds and hundreds of fans — Graceland put the number at 5,000 — gathered Jan. 22 on the mansion lawn for Lisa Marie’s memorial service. Speakers included Axl Rose, Alanis Morissette, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, along with, of course, Lisa Marie’s mother, Priscilla Presley, and longtime Presley family confidante Jerry Schilling, who befriended Elvis during a pickup football game in 1954, when Schilling — now 81 — was only 12.

“It’s been such a rollercoaster year,” said Schilling, who will be in Memphis for “Elvis Week" (a span that actually covers nine days of Graceland-centered events, from Aug. 9-17).

Remembering Elvis and Lisa Marie Presley

Schilling said this year's activities will focus on two generations of Presleys. "It's going to be not only the celebration of her father’s life that happens every year, but a celebration of Lisa’s as well, which I know her father would be proud of.”

Schilling will speak at a public tribute titled “A Celebration of Lisa Marie Presley” set for 5 p.m. Aug. 15 at the Graceland Soundstage, the auditorium across the street from the mansion. Schilling said the "Celebration" will showcase photographs of and recordings by Lisa Marie, and will feature music from singer Andy Childs.

"As she would probably tell me, 'It damn well better be entertaining,'" said Schilling (who knew Lisa Marie from essentially her first breath to her last, seeing her as a newborn and then being at her side when she died). "That's why I always called her 'Memphis.' She always had this Memphis attitude."

After the tribute, the gates to Elvis’ former home — where Lisa Marie lived as a child and where Schilling lived from 1964 to 1974, in what he calls “the first place that was a real, permanent home for me” — will open at 8:30 p.m. for the Candlelight Vigil, a ceremony that typically attracts thousands and continues into the morning of Aug. 16, the date in 1977 when Elvis died at 42.

The vigil is expected to be especially solemn this year as fans pay tribute to Lisa Marie, whose tomb is located in the Meditation Garden next to a matching monument for her son, Benjamin Storm Presley Keough, 27, who died by suicide in 2020. Elvis’ grave is on the opposite side of a small fountain in the center of the circular garden; also interred there are Elvis’ parents, Gladys and Vernon Presley, and his paternal grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley.

Priscilla Presley also will be buried as near as possible to her late husband, Elvis, as specified in the terms of the June settlement of a lawsuit regarding control of Graceland that Priscilla filed after the death of Lisa Marie, her only child with Elvis. As it is, Lisa Marie’s estate is held in a trust that is managed by Lisa Marie’s daughter, actress Riley Keough (a current Emmy nominee for "Daisy Jones & the Six"); Lisa Marie’s other daughters, twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, will become co-managers when they reach adulthood. The daughters' trust includes ownership of the mansion and its grounds, as well as Elvis’ personal effects (wardrobe, cars, and so on), while Elvis Presley Enterprises controls the licensing of Elvis’ image and manages the Elvis estate’s business.

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Riley Keough, Graceland & Elvis Week

As of now, neither Priscilla Presley nor Riley Keough are expected to attend any events during Elvis Week. Joel Weinshanker, managing partner and majority owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, said they were taking a break from public Elvis-related appearances during this tumultuous year, but “Riley will be involved in any number of Elvis media projects in the future.”

Said Weinshanker: “When you see Riley’s involvement with Graceland, I think it’ll be movies and events. I don’t think she’ll be doing a lot of public speaking.”

The next Elvis movie is Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla Presley biopic “Priscilla,” set to hit theaters Oct. 27, but “that movie is not something the estate is involved with in any way, nor did the estate allow any of the (Elvis) music to be used,” Weinshanker said.

However, two other major Elvis media projects are on the way, he said. He described them only as a “network Christmas special coming this year” and “another Elvis movie that’s probably two-and-a-half years away.”

“The estate has a great track record of being involved in great things for people to see,” he said, citing Luhrmann’s “Elvis" as a prime example. “So if something’s coming from the estate, you know it has an honest point of view and it’s something that Elvis would be proud of. And whenever we do something we make sure that not only is Graceland highlighted but also Memphis.”

Weinshanker said Graceland attendance for this year likely will be close to the pre-COVID highs of 400,000 to 500,000 visitors — a big upswing from 2020, the year of the pandemic shutdown, when about 190,000 people made it to the mansion. He said the "Elvis" movie was a factor, especially in boosting Elvis' appeal among teenage boys and young men, who apparently admired and identified with Austin Butler's Elvis. "That's the one demographic we're seeing more of," he said.

Lisa Marie Presley was 'loved around the world'

Weinshanker said that although Lisa Marie Presley had grown to become a proud partner in Graceland events, “she was always resistant to being front and center at things.” That resistance was motivated by private grief after the death of her son in 2020.

"Since her son Ben had died, ‘Memphis’ was very reclusive," Schilling said. "If anything killed Lisa, it was the death of her son. She loved her children so much, she just couldn’t get over it, as much as she tried."

He said Lisa Marie's enthusiasm for the Luhrmann film was responsible “for getting her out of the house, basically. Her and Austin Butler really hit it off. Austin Butler, he’s as great a human being off the celluloid as he is an actor on the celluloid. She loved the film and he was a tremendous help for her.” Supporting the film "was the first time she really began going out again publicly."

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Lisa Marie attended a preview of the film in June 2022 at Graceland, and then returned to her former home for this year’s Jan. 8 Elvis birthday celebration. According to Weinshanker, she spent more than two hours greeting and posing for pictures with fans at the event. Then she flew back to Los Angeles for a Warner Bros.-sponsored Elvis birthday party, where she asked Schilling if he would escort her to the Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 10. “Austin won best actor, and we had a great evening," Schilling said. "I had no idea that in less than 48 hours she would leave us.”

Speaking by phone from the West Hollywood Hills home he jokingly calls "Graceland West," which Elvis bought for him in 1974 because "I never really had a home" (Schilling was raised by grandparents and aunts), Schilling said his return to the actual Graceland this week will be bittersweet. The sadness, however, will be alleviated by the opportunity to share memories of Lisa Marie and to make more people aware of what he called her charm and her "underestimated" singing and songwriting, in which "she always told the truth."

Schilling — who manages the Beach Boys and at one time managed Jerry Lee Lewis — said Lisa Marie had plans to make a record in the early 1990s, but this first attempt to launch a music career was cut short by her marriage to Michael Jackson, who discouraged her. Schilling said during his first meeting with Jackson, the singer told him: "She doesn't need that. It would be like Princess Di cutting an album." (Presley and Jackson divorced in 1996; Lisa Marie released her first album, "To Whom It May Concern," in 2003.)

Schilling said Lisa Marie was "loved around the world," and he's glad people have an opportunity to come together and remember her at the home where she had some of her happiest times. As for that home itself, "as far as Graceland and its iconic status, from what I've seen, it's going to be there a long, long time," he said. "I think Graceland will be there as long as the Smithsonian is in Washington."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Elvis Week pays tribute to Lisa Marie Presley at Graceland