Lisa Marie Presley Visited Graceland and Her Future Burial Plot Just Days Before She Died: 'I Have So Much to Do'
© Provided by MovieWeb
A mere 48 hours after The Golden Globes, Lisa Marie Presley suffered cardiac arrest and passed away shortly after. Presley attended the award show in support of Baz Luhrmann's biopic about her father, Elvis. She had been attending red carpet events alongside the cast since the film's release last year. The film was nominated for best picture at The Golden Globes, and it also won Austin Butler the Golden Globe for best actor. In his acceptance speech, Butler paid special attention to thanking Lisa Marie, Priscilla, and the Presley family.
Over the weekend leading up to The Golden Globes, Presley visited Graceland, Elvis's iconic estate in Memphis that audiences saw recreated in Luhrmann's film. The purpose of her visit was to attend her late father's 88th birthday celebration, and she invited grief expert David Kessler to attend with her, CNN reports.
Presley's father, Elvis, also died of cardiac arrest and is buried at the Graceland estate along with Lisa Marie Presley's son who died by suicide at the age of 27 in 2020. According to Kessler, “She [Presley] had countless invites for the weekend, but for her, there were only three important ones: being at her father’s birthday celebration, spending time at her son and father’s grave after the tours left Graceland, and meeting with a recently bereaved mother.” Kessler recounted his time at Graceland with Presley, “so much fun, and she was optimistic" Presley had a past of tragedy and drug addiction, and Kessler added, “Graceland was her happy place and the employees who all knew her shared that she was looking so much better."
Kessler detailed an evening he spent with Presley visiting her father and son's grave, “She looked more at peace and was so proud of the Elvis movie. Saturday night we sat at the graves of her father and son. We talked about the heartbreak she grew up with and the more recent devastation of her son’s death," wrote Kessler.
"She showed me where she would be buried someday. I said a long time from now …and she said yes, I have so much to do.” - David Kessler
The conversation depicted by Kessler takes on a tragic eeriness in the wake of Lisa Marie Presley's passing by cardiac arrest, the same as her father, only a few days later.
Related: L.A. Coroner Defers Lisa Marie Presley's Cause of Death Pending Further Investigation
Lisa Marie Presley Spent Her Final Weeks Supporting Baz Luhrmann's Elvis
Lisa Marie Presley was a huge advocate of the biopic about her father, "I'm so overwhelmed by this film and the effect that it's had and what Baz has done, what Austin has done," she said, "I'm so proud. And I know that my father would also be very proud." Presley spent the majority of the weeks before her death promoting the film and her father's legacy.
Presley was thrilled with the film, writing on instagram, it is "nothing short of spectacular." She shared admiration for Austin Butler and called his performance, "mind-blowing." Presley said in an interview, "I really didn't know what to do with myself after I saw it [Elvis], I had to take, like, five days to process it because it was so incredible and so spot on and just so authentic that, yeah, I can't even describe what it meant."
Lisa Marie Presley's final public appearance was The Golden Globes, where she sat with her mother, Priscilla Presley, and watched as Butler won the award for best actor. After the show, Presley said with a smile, "I'm so happy," when congratulated and asked how she was feeling by PEOPLE. Both Butler and Director Baz Luhrmann paid tribute to Presley in the aftermath of her passing.
Lisa Marie Presley will join her father, son, and other members of the Presley family in burial at the Graceland estate. Presley became the sole heir to Graceland when she turned 25. The estate will remain in the family and be passed to Presley's three daughters, Riley, Harper and Finley. Graceland was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006, and it has been open to the public as a museum since 1982. It is unclear whether the estate will remain open to the public after Presley's burial, but following her death, sympathizers have lit candles and laid flowers around the Graceland gates.
