Riley Keough has posted a heartbreaking childhood photo of herself with her mother Lisa Marie Presley, who died of cardiac arrest aged 54 last week.
Keough, 33, posted a photo of her mother gazing at her admiringly as a young child while looking back with a soft smile on her face.
Presley’s oldest child simply captioned the heartbreaking post with a red heart.
It’s the first time actress Daisy Jones and the Six has acknowledged the death of her mother, who died in hospital last week after suffering cardiac arrest twice.
Presley was buried at the family’s Graceland estate ahead of a life service celebration at 9 p.m. Sunday.
She was buried next to her son Benjamin Keough, who took his own life in 2020, and opposite her famous father Elvis’ property.
Riley Keough posted a childhood photo of herself with her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, who died of cardiac arrest last week at the age of 54.
She simply captioned the post with a red heart. It’s the first time Keough has acknowledged her mother’s death
Presley grew up fearing her own mortality after finding her father dead at age nine, which traumatized her. She often spoke of her own death, even referring to the Graceland estate’s backyard as a “graveyard.”
“How many people have a family plot in their backyard? How many people are reminded of their fate, of their mortality, every damn day? All the graves are lined up and there’s a place waiting for me right next to my grandmother,” she told Playboy in 2003.
Despite her anxiety, the singer believed she had many years to live last Sunday, telling her boyfriend David Kessler, who works as a grief counselor, that she had “so much to do”.
The couple were at the Graceland estate to celebrate Elvis’ 88th birthday, and Presley, who rarely appears in public, told the admiring crowd, “You’re the only ones who can get me out of the house.”
‘I’m not joking. I love you back and that’s why I’m here,” she said.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County coroner postponed the results of her official cause of death pending the results of a toxicology test — which could be years.
Several of the Presleys also died from heart disease, including their own father, who died in 1977 at the age of 42 from cardiac arrhythmias associated with ventricular fibrillation — a condition in which the heart beats abnormally and then stops.
Her grandmother, Gladys Love Presley, died of heart failure at the age of 46, and her grandfather, Vernon Elvis Presley, died of cardiac arrest at the age of 63.
The mother-daughter duo were seen with Elvis’ ex-wife Priscilla (right) at the Elvis premiere in June
Lisa Marie with her parents in 1970. Presley found her father dead when she was nine. After finding her father dead, she became afraid of her own mortality and often referred to Graceland’s backyard as a “graveyard.”
Additionally, last August, Lisa Marie wrote an essay about the death of her son Benjamin to mark National Grief Awareness.
“I can understand why people might want to avoid you when a terrible tragedy has happened. Especially a parent who loses their child because it really is their worst nightmare,” she wrote in her essay, published by People.
Lisa Marie admitted that she had kept her distance from the parents of other people whose children died by suicide, which seemed to haunt her.
“I can remember a few times in my life where I have known parents who have lost their child and although I could be there for them when it happened I avoided them afterwards and never bothered to contacting them because they literally became a representative is my biggest fear,” she wrote.
“I also judged them cautiously and vowed never to do what I believe they have done or neglected to do with their child in their parenting actions and decisions.”
She added that since her son’s death, she’s “lived in the horrific reality” of the “relentless grips” of grief.
Keough has also acknowledged her brother’s death on several occasions, including in October when she wrote a tribute post on his birthday, writing, “You would be 30 today. Happy birthday my best friend my angel. This world is strange without you.’
Presley was buried next to her son Benjamin (pictured together), who took his own life in 2020
She also posted a wedding photo of her and Benjamin in July, writing, “Not an hour goes by that I don’t think of you and miss you. It’s been two years today since you left and I still can’t believe you’re not here. You are so loved, my Ben Ben.’
Since her mother’s death, fans have laid flowers at the front gate of the property to honor the singer.
“In lieu of flowers, the family encourages anyone wishing to send to do so in the form of a donation to the Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation,” Graceland’s website reads.
Presley died on January 12 after suffering a second cardiac arrest in the hospital. Her family signed a do not resuscitate order.
The 54-year-old only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley was rushed to hospital Thursday morning after she was found collapsed at her home in Calabasas by her housekeeper.
Paramedics who got to her home managed to revive her and she got a pulse again, but she was brain dead on arrival at the hospital, TMZ reported Friday.
The family rushed to her bedside, where she was in an induced coma and on life support. When they learned that she was already brain dead, they signed a “do not resuscitate” order.
She suffered a second cardiac arrest and died.
Her mother Priscilla, 77, was at her bedside.
Presley attended the Globe Globes a few days before her death
“It is with a heavy heart that I share the devastating news that our beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has passed away,” Priscilla Presley said in a statement Thursday night.
“She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”
Ex-husband Danny Keough – her first of four with whom she was living at the time of her death – had returned to the home shortly after her collapse and performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
Keough is the father of actress daughter Riley, 33, and son Benjamin, who took his own life in July 2020 at the age of 27.
Her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood, is the father of Presley’s 14-year-old twin daughters, Harper Vivienne and Finlay, who have said they will not return to the home where their mother died.
Presley was at the Golden Globes two days before her death, celebrating Austin Butler’s Best Actor Award for portraying her father, where she burst into tears during the actor’s speech.
And on Sunday, the singer-songwriter told the doting crowd at her father’s Memphis estate that they were the “only people who can get me out of the house” to celebrate his 88th birthday.