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Priscilla Presley has many fond memories of living with her husband, Elvis Presley, at Graceland, his Memphis, TN home. However, while Elvis understood how fans reacted to his music and movies throughout his life, he wondered if his legacy would remain. Priscilla once admitted, “Elvis never thought he would be remembered after his death.” How wrong he was.

Priscilla Presley poses with Elvis Presley's jumpsuits.
Priscilla Presley | Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

Elvis and Priscilla Presley remained rock royalty throughout their marriage

Elvis met Priscilla while stationed with the United States Army in Germany. She was just 14, and Elvis was 24 years old. He served in the military in Bad Nauheim, where Priscilla’s stepfather and his family were stationed.

After Elvis returned to the states, he and Priscilla remained close and maintained a long-distance romance. Her parents agreed Priscilla could move to Memphis to be closer to Elvis as long as she finished high school.

In 1963, Priscilla arrived in Tennessee at 17 and lived in a nearby home with Elvis’ father, Vernon, and his wife, Dee. She quietly moved into Graceland thereafter. Priscilla’s parents asked that Elvis eventually marry their daughter. However, that marriage didn’t occur until 1967, four years after Priscilla’s arrival when she was 21.

Elvis and Priscilla welcomed their only daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, one year later. The couple was the pinnacle of rock and roll royalty throughout their marriage, which ended after six years in 1973. However, longevity in the fickle music business was always on Elvis’ mind. He once confided in Priscilla that he didn’t know if he’d be “remembered” after his death.

Priscilla said ‘Elvis never thought he would be remembered’ for his contributions to the music business

“Elvis never thought that he would be remembered. That was his thing,” Priscilla said in an interview with The Guardian. She said that statement stuck with her even after Elvis’s 1977 death.

“He said, ‘you know, once I pass, nobody will remember me,’ and that stuck with me … [throughout his fame] he was always asking, ‘How long will this last?’” Priscilla admitted.

Elvis’ father, Vernon, methodically categorized everything Elvis touched, signed, or received from fans due to Elvis’ fears of being forgotten. His office, located in a separate building in Graceland’s backyard, held many essential family treasures. Many of these are currently on display at Graceland.

Priscilla took over for Vernon as estate executor after her father-in-law’s death. Lisa Marie remained the estate’s sole heir. She and Joseph A. Hanks, along with the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis, oversaw Elvis’s estate until Lisa Marie turned 25 on Feb. 1, 1993, when she inherited the trust.

Elvis and Priscilla remained close until his death

Priscilla and Elvis Presley the day of their 1975 divorce walking out of the court proceedings together.
Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley | Getty Images/Bettmann
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After walking out of the courthouse on the day of their divorce, hand in hand, Elvis and Priscilla remained very close. She would have other meaningful relationships and another child, a son Navarone Garabaldi, with Marco Garabaldi, in 1987. Elvis would have a long relationship with Linda Thompson and become engaged to Ginger Alden.

However, in the end, neither ever remarried. Elvis and Priscilla shared custody of Lisa Marie, who was at Graceland on the day of her father’s Aug. 1977 death. Priscilla shared with Entertainment Tonight how she got the news that he had died from his longtime road manager, Joe Esposito.

“My sister and I were going out for an appointment. She stopped me on my feet as I was picking her up,” Priscilla recalled. “Dad called and said Joe Esposito was trying to reach you and talk to you. I first thought about my daughter because she was visiting and was supposed to come home that day because school started.”

Priscilla later learned the news of Elvis’s death. The family sent a plane to retrieve Elvis’ ex-wife and bring her to Memphis, where she was reunited with the family and Lisa Marie.

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