Lisa Marie Presley’s Heartbreaking Decision: Keeping Her Son’s Body at Home for Two Months
Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of music legend Elvis Presley, was left shattered when her son, Benjamin Keough, tragically passed away at the age of 27 in 2020. In a deeply emotional memoir, “From Here to the Great Unknown,” which was completed by her daughter Riley Keough after Lisa Marie’s own passing, details of Presley’s immense grief have surfaced. One revelation in the memoir has drawn particular attention: Lisa Marie chose to keep her late son’s body in her home for two months following his death.
A Grieving Mother’s Unconventional Choice
In the memoir, Riley Keough recounts how her mother, overwhelmed by sorrow, made the difficult decision to keep Benjamin’s body close. “They told us that if we could tend to the body, we could have him at home,” Keough wrote, finishing the story her mother had begun to narrate. The memoir reveals that Presley kept Benjamin’s body in a separate room within their home, preserved on dry ice, which allowed her to grieve in her own time.
For Presley, this was an essential step in saying goodbye to her beloved son. She felt a profound need to have the same opportunity to bid farewell to Benjamin as she had with her father, Elvis Presley, when he passed away in 1977. Presley was only nine years old at the time of her father’s death, but she had been given the chance to spend time with him before his burial. This experience shaped her desire to keep Benjamin’s body nearby.
The Emotional Significance of Keeping Him at Home
Presley is quoted in the memoir, explaining that her house had “a separate casitas bedroom,” where she placed her son after his passing. She affectionately referred to him as “Ben Ben.” In California, there is no legal requirement to bury someone immediately, which allowed Presley to keep her son’s body at home for a longer period. She even found an understanding funeral home director who supported her decision, telling her that she could have Benjamin with her until she was ready to say her final goodbyes.
Presley went to great lengths to care for her son, ensuring that the room where she kept him was maintained at a temperature of 55 degrees. She admitted that this arrangement gave her the time she needed to slowly come to terms with her son’s death. It allowed her to feel like she could still “parent him,” even in his passing, delaying the inevitable moment of having to lay him to rest.
A Family United in Grief
Benjamin Keough was eventually buried at Graceland, the Presley family’s iconic estate, where both his grandfather Elvis and his mother Lisa Marie Presley are also interred. This final resting place holds deep emotional significance for the family, a place where they can all be together in death, as they were in life.
Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir offers a raw and unfiltered look into her grief, shedding light on the unconventional yet deeply personal way she coped with the tragic loss of her son. Her decision to keep him close for as long as possible speaks to the depth of her love and the enormity of her sorrow. While many may find this choice difficult to understand, for Presley, it was a necessary step in her journey toward healing.
In the end, Lisa Marie and Benjamin were reunited at Graceland, forever part of the legacy left behind by the Presley family.
