When Benjamin Keough died at just 27 years old in July 2020, Lisa Marie Presley was confronted with a loss she struggled to accept.
Benjamin was her only son.
And according to Lisa Marie’s posthumous memoir, she simply was not emotionally prepared to say goodbye to him.
So she did something almost nobody outside her family knew about at the time.
Lisa Marie kept Benjamin’s body at her California home for approximately two months before he was buried.
The extraordinary detail was revealed in From Here to the Great Unknown, the memoir Lisa Marie began before her death and her daughter Riley Keough later completed.
But for Lisa Marie, keeping Benjamin close was not meant to be something shocking.
It was part of how she grieved.
She remembered going through something similar when her own father, Elvis Presley, died in 1977.
Lisa Marie was only nine years old then.
Having Elvis remain at Graceland for a period after his death had allowed his young daughter to see him, sit near him and begin understanding that he was really gone.
Decades later, she wanted that same time with her own son.
Riley Keough Discusses Lisa Marie’s Grief After Benjamin’s Death
According to the memoir, Lisa Marie worked with an understanding funeral-home owner who agreed to allow Benjamin to be brought to her home.
He was kept in a separate bedroom in a casita on the property.
Riley explained that Benjamin was kept on dry ice, while Lisa Marie wrote that the room itself had to remain at approximately 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
But the arrangement was not simply about delaying a funeral.
Lisa Marie was struggling with one enormous decision.
Where should Benjamin be buried?
She considered Hawaii, where the family had strong personal connections.
The other possibility was Graceland.
Choosing Graceland would mean placing Benjamin beside the grandfather he had so often been compared with, Elvis Presley.
Lisa Marie later admitted that this indecision was one reason the process lasted so long.
But there was something even deeper happening.
She had become accustomed to having Benjamin near her.
She could enter the room, spend time with him and continue feeling like his mother before accepting the finality of burial.
Riley later told Oprah Winfrey that her mother wanted control over what happened to Benjamin after his death and did not like the thought of him being somewhere else while the family decided what to do.
To outsiders, the decision might have seemed impossible to understand.
Riley acknowledged that herself.
But she explained that having enough time to say goodbye was extremely important to Lisa Marie.
There was even one unusual moment during those two months that showed how differently the family was processing the loss.
Benjamin had tattoos honoring his mother and sister.
Lisa Marie and Riley decided they wanted tattoos matching his.
Because they wanted the placement and lettering to be accurate, a tattoo artist was brought to the house and shown Benjamin’s tattoos directly.
Riley later acknowledged just how surreal that moment had been.
Eventually, however, the family felt it was time.
Benjamin was laid to rest at Graceland’s Meditation Garden, near Elvis Presley.
Years later, another Presley would join him there.
After Lisa Marie died in January 2023, she was buried beside her son.
The story of those two months became public only after Lisa Marie was gone, when Riley completed the memoir using recordings her mother had made before her death.
And Riley’s explanation changes the meaning of what could otherwise sound like a shocking headline.
For Lisa Marie, this was not about refusing to acknowledge Benjamin’s death.
It was about delaying the moment when she would have to physically let her only son go.
She had already lost him. She simply was not ready to lose his presence too.