A public memorial was held over the weekend honoring the life of Lisa Marie Presley, who passed away earlier this month. On Sunday, many people made the trek to Graceland to pay their respects, including Jerry Schilling, who was best friends with Lisa Marie’s father, Elvis Presley. Schilling delivered a eulogy during the memorial and revealed that he was visiting Elvis and Priscilla Presley when Lisa Marie was born in 1968.
“Me and a girl named ‘Memphis.’ I always call Lisa ‘Memphis.’ She had that attitude. And she always called me Jerry Schilling, always in that cadence,” he said, per PEOPLE. “Her son Ben … did the same thing. Jerry Schilling?” The crowd chuckled, and Schilling went on to share that he’d almost left Memphis, where Graceland is located, ahead of Lisa Marie’s birth, but Elvis was persuasive in convincing him to stay. “He looked at me and he said, ‘You’re not gonna stay for the birth of our daughter?’ I said, ‘I guess I will!’ So I was here until Feb. 1,” Schilling said with a laugh.
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Schilling went on to share some of his most fond memories of Lisa Marie, and then concluded by saying, “I would like to end with, recently on a Sunday afternoon, after she had left Memphis on her father’s 88th birthday, she asked me if I would walk her on the red carpet to the Golden Globes the following Tuesday.” He continued, “Afterwards, as we walked to the car, the last thing she said to me was, ‘Jerry Schilling, I love you.’ As I was in the hospital with her father when Priscilla was giving birth, I was at the hospital with her mother when she left us. Memphis, I will always love you.”
On Thursday, Jan. 12, Presley was rushed to the hospital after suffering a medical emergency. She died sometime later. The musician was 54 at the time of her death. In a statement announcing the terrible news, Presley’s mother, Priscilla Presley, wrote, “It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us. She was the most passionate strong and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers. At this time there will be no further comment.”
