Lisa Marie Presley’s posthumous memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, released on October 8, 2024, offers a tantalizing glimmer into the final days of one of the most famous daughters in the world. But one of the most piquant facts revealed is that she kept the body of her dead son, Benjamin, on dry ice for two months in a separate casitas bedroom in their home in Los Angeles after he committed suicide in 2020 at the age of 27.
The memoir was written with her daughter, Riley Keough. It was published by Pan MacMillan, as well as Random House, on October 8, 2024. Presley asked Keough to assist her with the writing of the memoir in 2022, shortly before her death.
Lisa Marie’s grief was such that she could not let go of her beloved Ben-Ben’s remains without the time to process the reality that he would no longer be part of her life.
She recalled her own experience with her father, Elvis Presley, who was also kept at home after his death. This time allowed her to spend moments with her son and come to terms with his absence in a way that felt right for her. The memoir reveals that this period was also used to decide on his final resting place–whether it was going to be in Hawaii or at Graceland– which contributed to the length of time he was kept on dry ice. “That was part of why it took so long,” Lisa Marie writes.
For many, keeping a cadaver—even of a beloved family member—in the house for two months might be eery, but Lisa Marie said, “I got so used to him, caring for him and keeping him there. I think it would scare the living f—ing piss out of anybody else to have their son there like that. But not me.”
Riley Keough, Benjamin’s sister, writes that it was “really important” for her mother to “have ample time to say goodbye to him, the same way she’d done with her dad” Elvis Presley, who died in 1977 when she was 9.
In California, as in other states, it’s legal to have a loved one’s body at home after they die, but Lisa Marie received help from the funeral home to make the arrangements and kept Benjamin’s remains at 55 degrees for the extended period.
Lisa Marie goes on to write that, “I felt so fortunate that there was a way that I could still parent him, delay it a bit longer so that I could become okay with laying him to rest.”
The family went on to hold a funeral service for Benjamin in Malibu. Lisa Marie ultimately decided to have him buried in Graceland, with his grandfather Elvis.
Lisa Marie died three years later, in 2023, at the age 54, of a small bowel obstruction, a long-term complication from bariatric surgery. A month before her death, Riley agreed to help her mom finish her memoir.
