Even after Elvis Presley's untimely death in 1977, the public was still fascinated with
both him and his family, and the Presleys have been through a lot. This is the tragic
real-life story of the Presley family.
Elvis Presley's upbringing was not the kind you would expect for the future King of Rock
and Roll. The future "Jailhouse Rock" crooner was born on January 8, 1935, in a two-room
shotgun house in East Tupelo. At the time, the neighborhood was sometimes referred to
as the roughest town in north Mississippi.
Although they didn't have much, Elvis' parents, Gladys and Vernon Presley, still gave their
son an abundance of love. In an interview with Good Housekeeping in 1978, Elvis' father
had this to say about his son:
"My love for my son began even before he was born [...] At that time there was almost nobody
poorer than my wife Gladys and me. But we were thrilled and excited when we learned
that we were going to be parents."
Unfortunately for the happy couple and their baby boy, bliss didn't last long. By the time
Elvis was three, his family home, which had been built by Elvis' father, uncle, and paternal
grandfather, was taken away after Vernon landed in prison for altering a four-dollar check.
Although Vernon was gone for eight months, Elvis was surely affected after he and his
mother had to move in with extended family in Tupelo. According to one of his cousins,
his father's imprisonment was traumatic for the future star.
Elvis Presley wasn't an only child. In fact, he actually had an identical twin brother.
His brother, Jesse Garon, came into the world about 35 minutes before the future crooner,
yet unfortunately, he was stillborn. The next day, Jesse Garon was laid to rest in an unmarked
grave at the family's plot in Tupelo's Priceville Cemetery.
Elvis would go on to talk about his brother throughout his career, and as Peter Whitmer,
author of the 1996 psychological biography The Inner Elvis explains, the singer's mother
always thought that Jesse's death was the crucible that forged her son's destiny to
do great things. Nevertheless, losing Jesse still affected the King deeply. As Mississippi
History Now explains,
"Losing a twin can deeply affect [...] the surviving twin. Elvis no doubt later yearned
for a brother to help him through the rough spots of his life of which there were many."
Elvis and his mother Gladys had an incredibly strong bond. She was seen as a strong and
supportive presence in Elvis' life, so one can imagine how traumatized the music icon
was after Gladys Presley passed away at 46 due to a sudden heart attack. Elvis had been
drafted by the U.S. Army five months earlier, but after Gladys fell ill, he was granted
a seven-day leave to see her, two days before the heart attack claimed her. Of her passing,
Elvis told the Associated Press,
"It broke my heart. She was always my best girl."
During Gladys' funeral on August 16, 1958, the AP reported that her son was, quote, "near
hysteria." Crying throughout the entire service, Elvis was later quoted as saying,
"Oh God, everything I have is gone. I lived my life for you. I loved you so much."
Elvis Aron Presley passed away on August 16, 1977, in his sprawling Memphis property, Graceland,
at the age of 42. He was found by his girlfriend, Ginger Alden, unconscious in his master suite
bathroom. Writing in her book, Elvis & Ginger, Alden recalled the final moments of Elvis'
life:
"The last thing that was said to me I told him not to fall asleep in the bathroom and
he said, 'I won't.' He turned, gave me a little wave, walked into the bathroom and I found
him a little while later. It was a devastating day."
So, what happened? Elvis' death certificate stated that his death was caused by a heart
attack. Some fans didn't believe the sudden tragedy, however, claiming his death was related
to a lethal combination of powerful prescription drugs.
"I take Vitamin E. I was only kidding. I don't know."
It was Tennessee's chief medical examiner Jerry Francisco who brushed off those claims.
Only days after the King's sudden passing, Francisco stated to the American Medical News,
"Elvis Presley died of heart disease, and prescription drugs found in his blood were
not a contributing factor. Had these drugs not been there, he still would have died."
But was that true?
While Elvis Presley's official death certificate claimed he died of a heart attack, the real
truth is a lot messier. After the King's cause of death was released to the public, many
pathologists criticized Tennessee's chief medical examiner Jerry Francisco, who issued
the official death certificate.
As it turned out, like many other stars of his time, Elvis heavily abused a variety of
prescription medications. In fact, when the toxicology report came back several weeks
after Elvis' passing, his blood reportedly contained high dosages of opiates, as well
as Quaaludes and codeine. Considering that the Presley family requested a private autopsy,
the details surrounding Elvis' cause of death were sealed afterward.
It was only later that two other pathologists involved would admit to the official cause
of death being a cover-up. As PBS so perfectly put it,
"After all, how would it look if the rock star who President Richard Nixon awarded a
special badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs had died of a drug overdose?"
Lisa Marie, the King's only child, was only nine years old when her father died. The tragedy
of her father's death clearly affected Lisa Marie for years to come.
"Um, I'm upstairs, upper part of Graceland, is basically his room and my room, so… we
spent a lot of time together up there."
She brushed off describing the night of Elvis' passing in a 2002 interview with Larry King,
explaining,
"I don't usually go into this, the night of the death thing and all that."
While the starlet is known to keep the details of the fateful night under wraps, there's
no denying she went on to battle her own demons well into adulthood. In 2003, Lisa Marie admitted
to Paper,
"[I used] cocaine, sedatives, pot and drinking — all at the same time. I just couldn't
be sober."
The years that followed didn't get any easier, as 2009 saw the death of her ex-husband, Michael
Jackson, and in 2020, Lisa Marie's son, Benjamin Keough, died at the age of 27.
It was only fitting that Lisa Marie Presley married the King of Pop. After all, she was
a part of music royalty herself as Elvis Presley's only daughter. So, in 1994, Lisa Marie and
Michael Jackson tied the knot, yet their fairy tale abruptly ended in 1996, barely 20 months
after the couple had wed.
Jackson and Presley's marriage was in the tabloids incessantly. There was even rampant
speculation among the masses that the relationship may have been a publicity stunt designed to
save the damaged image of Jackson, who at the time was facing allegations of child abuse.
"I am totally innocent of any wrongdoing. And I know these terrible allegations will
all be proven false."
It didn't help that the pair reportedly lived apart in their respective mansions, either.
Out of all the gossip, however, what may be the most haunting piece of information was
the "Beat It" singer eerily foreshadowing his own death by relating it to his former
father-in-law. As Lisa Marie revealed on her MySpace blog after Jackson's death in 2009,
"Years ago Michael and I were having a deep conversation about life in general [...] he
may have been questioning me about the circumstances of my father's death."
According to Presley, Jackson then calmly delivered the following:
"I am afraid that I am going to end up like [Elvis], the way he did."
In a tragic parallel to the death of Elvis, Michael Jackson passed away at the age of
50 from cardiac arrest, after having been given the drug propofol by his doctor.
Elvis and Priscilla Presley were together for a remarkable 18 years — having met in
1959 when the crooner was 24 and Priscilla a mere 14 years old. The King enjoyed his
innocent romance — one that wasn't consummated until their marriage in 1967. As Priscilla
told Barbara Walters in 1985, it was her inexperience that attracted the superstar.
"Did he spoil you? Lots of presents? Lots of goodies?"
"Yeah, but he spoiled everyone. It wasn't, I mean, he was just very generous."
Sure enough, as Priscilla wrote in a piece penned for People, she was molded into being
his perfect woman. Priscilla explained in the piece:
"I wore the clothes, hairstyle and makeup of his careful choosing."
However, although she was suddenly surrounded by glitz and glam, Elvis and Priscilla grew
apart due to his touring, growing pill addiction, and casual encounters with other women while
on the road. As Priscilla told People in 1978,
"He had to be happy. My problems were secondary. I want[ed] to grow."
She asked for a divorce in 1972 and finalized it a year later at the age of 28. The pair
remained friends up until Elvis' untimely passing. In a 1977 interview with Closer Weekly,
Priscilla had this to say about the death of her former husband:
"It's like the world stood still. I just couldn't believe my ears. Not him. It's still hard."
Elvis Presley wasn't exactly known to be stingy with his money. As Forbes notes,
"Estimates place his lifetime earnings anywhere from $100 million up to one billion dollars."
While you'd think the King would have set up his family for a life of opulence after
his passing, that wasn't the case. According to the Los Angeles Times, Elvis' estate was
worth $4.9 million, while the cost of maintaining Graceland was about $480,000 a year. Most
of that money for the mansion's upkeep went to taxes, insurance and 24-hour security for
Elvis' gravesite.
If that wasn't enough, most of the royalties from Elvis' songs went to RCA, not his estate.
Bluntly put, without Elvis being alive to tour, make appearances, or star in movies,
the family found themselves in trouble. Thankfully for the Presleys, the singer's ex-wife, Priscilla,
stepped in, turning Graceland into a tourist attraction, and the property was worth over
$75 million by 1989.
In 1993, Priscilla's daughter, Lisa Marie, turned 25, at which point she became eligible
to directly inherit the money, per Elvis' will. Money woes plagued Lisa Marie, however,
and within ten years, she claimed $100 million was gone. Instead, she had a mere $14,000
in cash and owed millions in back taxes and credit card debt, according to Forbes. Yet
again, Priscilla came to the rescue, selling her own Los Angeles mansion to help her daughter
with her crippling debt.
Lisa Marie Presley's eldest son, Benjamin Keough, lived a life relatively under the
radar considering that he came from such a high-profile family. Not much information
is out there about Keough, yet Elvis' grandson suddenly found himself going viral in June
2019 after his mother shared a photo of herself and her children on Twitter which showed his
striking resemblance to Elvis.
Sadly, on July 12, 2020, TMZ broke the news that Benjamin Keough was found dead from an
apparent suicide at the young age of 27. As Lisa Marie's manager told the tabloid news
site,
"She is completely heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated but trying to stay strong
for her 11 year old twins and her oldest daughter Riley. She adored that boy. He was the love
of her life."
Keough's friend, musician Brandon Howard, spoke to People about the tragedy, citing
the Presley family's legendary pop culture legacy as a source of Keough's struggles.
As Howard explained:
"That kind of pressure is definitely a part of what happened [...] It's almost like you're
pressured into having to be a musician, having to be an actor [...] You never know what triggers
it. You never know ... It's so random."