Priscilla Presley Says She Is ‘Most Proud’ of Keeping Graceland in the Family

Priscilla Presley takes great pride in Graceland.

During a conversation at 92Y in New York City with Budd Mishkin on Wednesday, Sept. 24, the actress and businesswoman spoke about her many accomplishments while discussing her memoir, Softly as I Leave You: Life After Elvis.

Priscilla, 80, said she is “most proud of” Graceland, the home of the late Elvis Presley, and opened up about taking a major chance on the property despite many people encouraging her to sell it.

“When I was told, I was handed [it] through Vernon [Elvis’s father], to now take over, when he died. And which he did, and I had meetings with lawyers, with those who handled the money. I had to learn really quickly how to do all of this, and do it right,” she said of Graceland, which had been bringing in no money at the time.

“He was running it, then he passed, and he wasn’t around anymore. And I think I am most proud of the fact that Graceland became what it is today because I took a chance,” added Priscilla.
“I took a chance of people telling me, ‘You’ll never get anywhere. Why don’t you just sell it?’ And I said, ‘I’ll never be selling it.'”

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Priscilla said many people encouraged her to sell the iconic home. However, she was determined to hold onto it and recruited Morgan Maxfield through a mutual friend, asking them to come to Memphis to help her get Graceland readied to open to the public.

Maxfield, who died in a plane crash in 1981 before Graceland was set to open, became rich by building gas stations at freeway exits.

“I heard about the things that you’ve done, and all of which you’ve done, and what you made of what you’ve done. I need help with Graceland,” she recalled telling him. “And he goes, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘I want to open it up, so people can come in and see what Graceland was.’ And so he said, ‘Okay, so you don’t want to sell it?'”

“No way I want to sell it. No, I’m not selling Graceland at all. That’s out of the picture,” Priscilla said she told Maxfield at the time.

The house, which opened to the public in 1982, is now the second-most-visited home in the United States behind the White House. Priscilla explained, “Graceland is exactly the same as it was when Elvis lived there and nothing has been moved. The dining room is the same. All of the rooms are the same. We wouldn’t change anything.”

“So what you see is what you get, at Elvis’s house. So it’s been a pleasure to have people come and really enjoy it for that many times,” added Priscilla.

Graceland welcomes over 600,00 visitors annually. It is also where Elvis as well as his parents Vernon and Gladys, paternal grandmother Minnie Mae, daughter Lisa Marie and grandson Benjamin Keough are buried.

Softly as I Leave You: Life After Elvis is available for purchase wherever books are sold.