Graceland was Elvis Presley’s home. It sat in Memphis, Tennessee. To this day it’s the house the whole world connects with his name.
But his only child spent most of her early years somewhere else.
Lisa Marie Presley was born on Feb. 1, 1968. She was Elvis’s one and only child. As a little girl she lived mostly in California with her mom, Priscilla. She came to Graceland for visits. The rest of the time, a lot of miles sat between a father and his daughter.
So what does a dad do when his little girl lives that far away? Most of us would call when we could and count the days until the next visit. Elvis had his own ideas.
Before we get to them, this clip dated August 2, 1974 is a chance to see Elvis and little Lisa Marie together in the years when every visit mattered.
Elvis and little Lisa Marie together in 1974
We know how Elvis handled the distance because Lisa Marie wrote it down herself. Her memoir, “From Here to the Great Unknown,” was published by Random House in October 2024. She started the book and her daughter finished it. That’s actress Riley Keough, Elvis’s granddaughter.
Riley talked about the book with host Tonya Mosley on NPR’s “Fresh Air” in 2024. During that interview a short passage from the memoir was read out loud, and it answers the question in a way few people would expect.
Elvis did two things.
He didn’t wait for his daughter to come to him. He brought part of his life to her city. And then he made sure she heard from him, whatever time it was.
Here are Lisa Marie’s own words, as read on “Fresh Air”:
“He got a house there to be closer to me. When I was in LA, he’d call all hours of the night to talk to me or just to leave a message on my phone.”
Think about that for a second. He was the biggest star in the world, and he already had one of the most famous homes in America. He went and got another house in Los Angeles anyway, so he could be nearer to one little girl.
Then there were the calls. Some nights he got her on the line and they talked. Other times he just left a message, so she’d have his voice waiting for her.
Riley told NPR her mom was “one of the most loving people I’ve ever met.” Reading that passage, it isn’t hard to guess where some of that love came from.
For a lighter moment, here’s Riley with talk show host Drew Barrymore, as the two of them bond over a special family connection.
Riley Keough and Drew Barrymore talk about family
The house in LA meant Elvis could be near his daughter. Graceland was still the place she loved.
On “Fresh Air,” Riley said her mom “was very happy to be at Graceland in general.”
And for the next generation it stayed a happy place too. Riley summed up their own time there in one easy line: “we always had a lot of fun there.”