A Brief History
On January 12, 2023, Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, died at the age of 54, one of the many early deaths of those related to Elvis.
Digging Deeper
Lisa Marie died of cardiac failure due to complications of bariatric surgery she had undergone. Her death at a premature age is only one such tragedy associated with Elvis. Of course, the King himself died at the age of 42 in 1977, also of cardiac arrest and not of complications of his extensive prescription drug regimen.
Elvis was touched by family death even as he was born in 1935, his twin brother, Jessie Garon Presley, being stillborn at birth.
Elvis’s mother, Gladys, had died young, at the age of 46 of a heart attack after an illness complicated by hepatitis, a death that devastated the then young soldier and rock icon that Elvis was. In fact, three of the brothers of Gladys, Evis Presley’s uncles, had also died young, at the ages of 58, 49, and 46, causing author Sally Hoedel to speculate that a genetic tendency toward early death may have been triggered by the first cousin marriage of the maternal grandparents of Elvis.
Even more tragic was the death at age 27 of the grandson of Elvis, Benjamin Keough, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death is not surprisingly said to have devastated his mother, Lisa Marie.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Are you an Elvis Presley fan?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Gaar, Gillian. Elvis – The Legend: The Authorized Book from the Official Graceland Archive. Mortimer, 2022.
The Editors of Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone Elvis Presley. Rolling Stone, 2025.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of Elvis and Priscilla with newborn Lisa Marie, 1968, is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1929 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart as well as a detailed definition of “publication” for public art.
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