As the only child of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, who has died aged 54, spent her life in the spotlight, much of it reflected from her father. She spent years as fodder for the tabloids, a frenzy fed by four marriages, including one to Michael Jackson at the apex of his notoriety and, later in life, delineated in three albums that first dissected her history, and later drew on her father’s musical roots. Her inheritance was not only musical; as his sole heir she became hugely rich, and in nominal control of his lucrative estate.
Her life in the tabloids began, literally, at birth, with the first photos of her proud parents, Elvis and Priscilla (nee Beaulieu), whom the singer had courted since meeting her when she was 14 and a colonel’s daughter at the US army base in Germany where the world’s most famous private was serving. Lisa Marie was born in Memphis, Tennessee, nine months to the day after her parents married. She spent her early years at Graceland but, when she turned five, she moved with her mother to Los Angeles; the Presleys divorced in 1973. Lisa Marie visited Memphis regularly, where her father doted on her, once flying her in a private jet to Idaho so she could see snow for the first time and play in it for an hour. She was at Graceland when Elvis died in August 1977.