Editing Elvis Presley (section)

=== Death ===

On August 16, 1977, Presley was found unresponsive at Graceland and was pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. He was 42. The official cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia, though prescription drug use — particularly sedatives and painkillers — was widely acknowledged as a contributing factor.

His death prompted an outpouring of public grief comparable in scale to few events in American popular culture. Tens of thousands of people gathered outside Graceland. He was initially buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis; following a security incident, his remains were moved to the Meditation Garden at Graceland, where they rest alongside those of his parents.