Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks circa 1945–1951
Born	Loretta Pleasant (1920-08-01)August 1, 1920 Roanoke, Virginia
Died	October 4, 1951(1951-10-04) (aged 31) Baltimore, Maryland
Monuments	Henrietta Lacks Health and Bioscience High School; historical marker at Clover, Virginia
Occupation	Tobacco farmer
Height	around 5 ft tall
Spouse(s)	David Lacks (1941–1951; her death)
Children	Lawrence Lacks Elsie Lacks (1939-1955) David "Sonny" Lacks, Jr. Deborah Lacks Pullum Zakariyya Bari Abdul Rahman (born Joseph Lacks)
Parent(s)	Eliza (1886–1924) and John Randall Pleasant I (1881–1969)

Henrietta Lacks (born Loretta Pleasant; August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951) was an African American woman who was the progenitor of the HeLa cell line, one of the most important cell lines in medical research ever discovered. She was the unwitting donor of these cells from a cancerous tumor biopsied during treatment for her cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. in 1951. These cells were then cultured by George Otto Gey to create the cell line known as HeLa, a line which is still used for medical research.

The descendant of slaves and their white masters, Henrietta grew up in rural Virginia. After giving birth to two of their children, she married her cousin David "Day" Lacks. In 1941 the young family moved to Turner Station in Baltimore County, Maryland so Day could work in Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point. After Henrietta had given birth to their fifth child she was diagnosed with cancer. Tissue samples from her tumors were taken during treatment and these samples were then subsequently cultured into the HeLa cell line.

Even though some information about the origins of HeLa's immortalized cell lines was known to researchers after 1970, the Lacks family was not made aware of the lines' existence until 1975. In the intervening years, with knowledge of the cell lines' genetic provenance becoming public, the usage of the cells for medical research and for commercial purposes continues to raise concerns about privacy and patients' rights.

Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia, to Eliza and Johnny Pleasant. Her family is uncertain how her name changed from Loretta to Henrietta, but she was nicknamed Hennie. When Lacks was four years old in 1924, her mother died giving birth to her tenth child. Unable to care for the children alone after his wife's death, Lacks' father moved the family to Clover, Virginia, where the children were distributed among relatives. Lacks ended up with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks, in a two-story log cabin that was once the slave quarters on the plantation that had been owned by Henrietta's white great-grandfather and great-uncle. She shared a room with her nine-year-old cousin and future husband, David "Day" Lacks (1915–2002).