43 pages • 1-hour read
Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis
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Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child sexual abuse, illness, and death.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Coming of Age”
In the 1990s, Priscilla was in a good relationship and loved raising Navarone. She was satisfied in her work and happy for Lisa Marie, who was now married and had two children, Riley and Benjamin. Still, Priscilla was disoriented by becoming a grandmother and sometimes frustrated with Lisa Marie’s jealousy of her. However, she was impressed by Lisa Marie’s love for her children.
Priscilla started her own fragrance line and continued working as Graceland’s trustee. Then in 1993, Elvis was given a special honor when the US Postal Service featured him on a postage stamp. The ceremony commemorating the stamp made Priscilla proud. It brought her and Lisa Marie together, too.
Just a few weeks later, Lisa Marie turned 25 and inherited Graceland. Priscilla identifies this moment as a turning point in her family’s lives. Because she now had so much money, Lisa Marie demanded that Danny quit his band. She was jealous of the time he spent on the road, threatened by the women who often surrounded him, and didn’t think he needed to work because of her windfall. Although devastated, Danny left his career in music. Priscilla asserts that this decision ruined their marriage. Although they remained friends for life, the two ended up divorcing not long later.
Only weeks after divorcing Danny, Lisa Marie married Michael Jackson. Priscilla distrusted Michael, whom she believes was only interested in being with Elvis’s daughter and didn’t actually care about Lisa Marie as a person. Priscilla also feared that Michael was making a big show of the marriage as a publicity stunt, using Lisa Marie to disprove the child molestation allegations brought against him. Lisa Marie didn’t listen to Priscilla’s concerns, but eventually divorced Michael in 1996.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Memories”
As Navarone grew up, he and his mother were very close. She quit acting to spend more time with him. He was adventurous, curious, imaginative, and active. Priscilla shares several stories of Navarone sneaking off, playing make believe, or finding lost animals.
Priscilla’s bond with Navarone often made Lisa Marie jealous. Priscilla struggled to navigate their sibling dynamic, but maintained a close relationship with her daughter. An anniversary concert in remembrance of Elvis particularly connected them. Lisa Marie sang along with an Elvis recording at the event, which moved Priscilla deeply.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Leaving Las Vegas”
Although Lisa Marie was musically gifted, Priscilla never pushed her daughter to become a performer because of Elvis’s legacy. She holds that Lisa Marie was born to be a singer. She describes Lisa Marie’s moving songs and lyrics. Lisa Marie was often nervous before performing but Priscilla was always encouraging. She was particularly touched when Lisa Marie wrote a song for her.
In 2001, Lisa Marie started seeing Nicolas Cage, also a scion of a storied performing arts family. Priscilla sees parallels between their family legacies. She also remarks on their similarities. They were both passionate and short-tempered which led to a tempestuous relationship. They ended up divorcing just three months after getting married.
Navarone struggled to find himself. He wasn’t Elvis’s son, which made it complicated to be Priscilla’s son and Lisa Marie’s brother. Priscilla tried to be sensitive and supportive.
In 2005, Lisa Marie sold Graceland to deal with her financial troubles. Priscilla was devastated, but has remained a part of the Graceland project ever since. Later that same year, Lisa Marie married Michael Lockwood. Priscilla thought Michael was better for Lisa Marie than some of her past boyfriends and hoped this relationship would last. Meanwhile, Priscilla was in the process of starting over again herself. She and Marco parted ways. Afterward, she knew she was done searching for true love. She reflects on the experience of dating as an older woman, and of aging in general. She imagines what it would have been like to grow old with Elvis.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Guest Star”
Priscilla largely gave up acting when Navarone was little, but still took guest starring roles on shows like Melrose Place and Touched by an Angel. The most challenging job was appearing on the reality competition show Dancing with the Stars. Although reality TV wasn’t ultimately for her, Priscilla asserts that it was a positive experience which helped her to grow.
Priscilla pursued other opportunities, too, including designing “a line of linens” (180) and working with the Dream Foundation. Much like the Make-A-Wish Foundation does for children, the Dream Foundation fulfills the wishes of adults dying from cancer. These experiences fulfilled her need to be useful. She was particularly glad to help struggling people through the Dream Foundation, but the work triggered her grief over her own lost loved ones. Still, she was unaware of the pain she had yet to suffer.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
At the start of the memoir, Priscilla asserts she has “never regretted my decision to leave Elvis” (16). All of the family and work experiences she recounts in the pages following seek to validate this thesis, illustrating how divorcing Elvis ultimately liberated Priscilla to live a life of her own making while Discovering Personal Autonomy and Self-Empowerment.
Priscilla relies on personal anecdotes to reify her ongoing journey toward self-fulfillment. She layers episodes from her family life, work life, and love life to convey her effort to create a balanced identity. In Chapter 9, for example, Priscilla in quick succession recounts becoming “a grandmother at forty-four” (124), working on a perfume line, attending the US Postal Service’s tribute concert to Elvis, and musing on Lisa Marie’s various romantic relationships. Priscilla pivots between these seemingly unrelated stories to offer a full picture of her life. From the moment she decided to leave Elvis, Priscilla devoted herself to being more than Elvis’s romantic partner: She became a designer, a mother, an actor, and an independent woman.
Priscilla’s detailed descriptions of her family life are intended to make her appear vulnerable and relatable to her readers. As a public figure, Priscilla is often defined by her association with Elvis. In Softly, As I Leave You, Priscilla offers up humanizing anecdotes to challenge this flat persona, which conveys her effortful Navigating Fame, Public Expectation, and Legacy. In Chapter 10, for example, Priscilla shares numerous memories of her son Navarone: his love for animals, his inventive games, and all the fun they had together when he was growing up. This section has a narrative quality, with scenic descriptions and lengthy dialogue. Such stylistic choices invite the reader into Priscilla’s home life, portraying her maternal and domestic side in ways that distance her from her celebrity.
While Priscilla emphasizes the joy and wonder she’s experienced, she nuances her positivity with episodes of frustration and struggle. The effect is an honest, open, and vulnerable account of a woman who has failed in a variety of ways, and whose many losses and tragedies have colored her outlook. This helps to demystify her. For example, when she describes her wonderful years raising Navarone, she also remarks on Lisa Marie’s jealousy of their relationship and the challenges of raising two children so far apart in age. Later, when she notes her excitement for Lisa when she inherited Graceland, she also points out how this moment led to “a personal and financial crisis” (165), opening up about the ways in which the sudden windfall damaged Lisa Marie’s marriage. Priscilla’s refusal to omit the negative parts of her story conveys her desire for the public to see her as a complete, nuanced, and complex woman. She may live in the spotlight, but her life has not always been glamorous or smooth.
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