Lisa Marie Presley, the smoky-voiced singer and songwriter who led a soap opera existence as the only child of Elvis Presley and the first wife of Michael Jackson, has died. She was 54.
Presley died Thursday at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center after an episode of cardiac arrest earlier in the day at her home in Calabasas, California, her mother, actress Priscilla Presley announced in a statement.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” she said. “She was the most passionate strong and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers. At this time there will be no further comment.”
Along the way, she recorded duets featuring her late father’s vocals for singles including “In the Ghetto,” “I Love You Because” and “Where No One Stands Alone.”
As a singer, she told the Associated Press in 2005, “First I had to overcome a pre-speculated idea of me. I had to sort of burst through that and introduce myself, and that was the first hurdle, and then now to sing in front of everybody … and then [there was] the second one [as] I’m the offspring of — you know, who I’m the offspring of. I had a few hurdles to get through, no doubt about it. But the scales never tipped in the other direction too much.”
She was born in Memphis on Feb. 1, 1968, as the only child of Elvis and Priscilla, who were wed on May 1, 1967, at the Aladdin in Las Vegas. After her parents divorced when she was 4, she moved to Los Angeles to live with her mom, though she regularly visited her dad in her birthplace.
She wrote and sang about that on “Lights Out”: “I was crying every time I’d leave you, and then I didn’t want to see you. … I still keep my watch two hours behind.”
She was 9 when Elvis died at age 42 on Aug. 16, 1977.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter