During his short 42 years, Elvis Presley married only once, to Priscilla Presley. Nine months to the day after their wedding night, The King’s only child Lisa Marie Presley was born on February 1, 1968, which is 57 years ago today.
Tragically, she died aged just 54, on January 12, 2023, after suffering a cardiac arrest after witnessing Austin Butler win his Golden Globe for playing her father on the big screen.
Following Elvis and Priscilla’s divorce in 1973, Lisa Marie would spend much of her school term time in Los Angeles with her mother. Their only child would then enjoy her holidays at Graceland with Elvis.
The King would sleep all day and be up all night, so his daughter had free roam of the mansion with her gang of Memphis Mafia kid pals.
In interviews, the 54-year-old has described being a real “terror” during her first decade, taking advance of how unstrict her daddy was. In the private upstairs area of the mansion, Elvis’ bedroom was right down the corridor from Lisa Marie’s room. The father and daughter would sit together there and watch TV. Tragically, Lisa Marie was just nine-years-old when Elvis suddenly died of a heart attack at just 42 on August 16, 1977.
Over the years, fans have wondered the reason The King decided on his daughter’s name. During a previous fan Q&A on Facebook, Priscilla shared: “I bought a book of baby names for Elvis and I to choose from. We would lay in bed night after night looking through all the names that would sound good together.We decided that Lisa Marie was beautiful for a girl…She wasn’t named after anyone.”
Priscilla has also revealed what Lisa Marie would have been called if she had been a boy, saying: “I loved the name John Baron for a boy…he agreed.” However, The King’s ex-wife had also dispelled a rumour about their daughter’s naming. Priscilla said: “From what I hear, it was written somewhere that we may have taken the name Marie after Col. Parker, his manager’s wife, who was named Marie. That is not true. We just simply… liked those two names together.”