Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter (and Elvis’ granddaughter) Riley Keough is the new sole heir to her late mother’s estate.
The 34-year-old Daisy Jones And The Six star won a bittersweet legal battle on August 4 when a Los Angeles judge approved her as the sole trustee of Graceland, the mansion and grounds in Memphis Tennessee where her mother grew up and later inherited upon her rockstar father’s death in 1977.
In the settlement reached between Keough, her grandmother Priscilla Presley and Michael Lockwood (the father and Guardian Ad Litem for Keogh’s younger half-sisters Harper and Finlay, both 14), will allow Priscilla to retrieve any personal belongings she has at Graceland or in any storage units controlled by Graceland.
Graceland’s meditation garden is the resting place of Elvis, his parents Vernon and Gladys, paternal grandmother Minnie Mae, grandson (Keough’s brother Benjamin who passed away in 2020), and daughter Lisa-Marie. Keough will also “to the extent of her authority” allow Priscilla to be buried on the property in “the location closest to Elvis Presley without moving any existing gravesite.”
Following her daughter’s death, Priscilla had reportedly raised concerns surrounding the “authenticity and validity” of her granddaughter’s appointment as sole trustee following Benjamin’s death. But she made it very clear that while there “there were many issues surrounding it”, there was no rift between herself and Keough.
Lisa Marie died in January, aged 54, a shock for her family and the world.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla said in a statement at the time. “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.”
A memorial service at Graceland followed.
“Thank you for being my mother in this life. I am eternally grateful to have spent 33 years with you,” Keough’s husband Ben Smith-Petersen read on behalf of his wife during the memorial service for Lisa Marie. “I’m certain I chose the best mother for me in this world and I knew that as far back as I remember you.”
He continued, “I remember everything. I remember you giving me baths as a baby and I remember you driving me in my car seat listening to Aretha Franklin. I remember the way you would cuddle me and when I’d come into your bed at night, and the way you smelled. I remember you taking me for ice cream after school in Florida. I remember you singing me and my brother lullabies at night and how you would lay with us until we fell asleep.”
