Editorial: Great sadness in Memphis and round the world at the death of Elvis’s only child

​Elvis fans were queuing at the Memphis property from 5am to pay their last respects to his only child, Lisa Marie Presley, 54, who died this month.

When Lisa Marie was born in early 1968, her father – the King of Rock and Roll – was already a megastar, having had his first number one hit 12 years previously.

Presley, one of the most famous Americans of Scots Irish descent (in a state, Tennessee, that was home to many settlers from Ulster), became the most successful solo music artist ever, selling 500 million records.

Speakers at yesterday’s service included the rock singer Axl Rose and the ex royal, Sarah Ferguson. A former Memphis mayor recalled how Martin Luther King was shot dead in the city that year.

Brilliant families are not infrequently marked by tragedy, and this only deepens the empathy their fans feel with them. When Elvis died in 1977 at a mere 42. Lisa Marie’s gifted husband Michael Jackson died at 50 after a life full of pain.

Lisa Marie, 9 when her father died, became a living link to him. Two weeks before yesterday’s service, Lisa Marie spoke to Elvis fans outside Graceland on what would have been his 88th birthday. She joked that they were the only people who could woo her out of the house. Then, the day before her death, Lisa Marie was at the Golden Globes to see Austen Butler win best actor for portraying her father in the movie Elvis. She seemed unsteady on her feet.

Lisa Marie never entirely recovered from the suicide of her son Benjamin in 2020, then aged in his 20s.

Elvis, who drew on influences from blues to gospel, was much loved in Northern Ireland, where there is a thriving country scene. We share in the sadness at the loss of his beloved daughter.