Watch: Days Before Lisa Marie Presley's Death She Honored Elvis' 88th Birthday with 'Moving' Speech
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
In what became her final speech to the fans who came to Graceland to mark her father’s birthday, Lisa Marie Presley on Jan. 8 told those gathered she loved them.
Four days later, Presley, 54, the daughter of icon Elvis Presley, was dead, hours after she was brought to a hospital in full cardiac arrest, according to The Associated Press.
On Jan. 8, Presley made a brief appearance for fans of her father gathered at Graceland, on what would have been his 88th birthday.
“It’s been a while. I’ve missed you. I love you,” she said after acknowledging applause from gathered fans.
After a fan screamed, “I love you,” Presley replied, “And I love you.”
“I keep saying you are the only people who can bring me out of the house. I’m not kidding. And I love you back and that’s why I’m here.
“So, today, he would have been 88 years old, it’s hard to believe. I think that he would have been proud, I think this year’s been an incredible year. I think the movie was incredible and I’m very proud of it, I hope you guys are too,” she said.
She told the crowd that she had tried to find words that did not sound scripted.
“It’s just so moving how every year you come from all over the world and it’s moving to me and my family, and thank you,” she said. With that, she waved and receded back into the shadows.
That Tuesday, she attended the Golden Globes, where Austin Butler won the award for “Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama” for his leading role in “Elvis,” according to Page Six.
“The Presley family, thank you guys for opening your hearts, your memories, your home to me,” he told the Tennessee natives. “Lisa Marie and Priscilla, I love you forever.”
Page Six noted that both Presleys had an emotional reaction to the speech.
Some on social media noted that Lisa Marie Presley didn’t “look well at all” after the awards show.
Lisa Marie at the golden globes.
She doesn’t look well at all.
— Rondalee. Iowa (@Maga4Justice) January 12, 2023
Presley had written an essay for “National Grief Awareness Day” that was published by People in August. In it, she touched on the suicide of her son Benjamin Keough in 2020.
“Death is part of life whether we like it or not — and so is grieving. There is so much to learn and understand on the subject, but here’s what I know so far: One is that grief does not stop or go away in any sense, a year, or years after the loss. Grief is something you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life, in spite of what certain people or our culture wants us to believe. You do not ‘get over it,’ you do not ‘move on,’ period,” she wrote.
“I already battle with and beat myself up tirelessly and chronically, blaming myself every single day and that’s hard enough to now live with, but others will judge and blame you too, even secretly or behind your back which is even more cruel and painful on top of everything else,” she wrote.
In her essay, she noted she had dealt with grief since the age of 9 when her father died at the age of 42.
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