Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks (1 August 1920 – 4 October 1951; sometimes erroneously called Henrietta Lakes, Helen Lane, or Helen Larson) was an African-American woman who was the unwitting source of cells from her cancerous tumor which were cultured by George Otto Gey to create the first known human immortal cell line for medical research. This is now known as the HeLa cell line.

Early life (1920–1934)

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. Her mother Eliza died giving birth to her tenth child in 1924. Henrietta's father felt unable to handle the children after the death of his wife, so he took them all to Clover, Virginia and distributed the children among relatives. Four-year-old Henrietta, nicknamed Hennie, ended up with her grandfather Tommy Lacks in a two-story log cabin that had been the slave quarters of her white great-grandfather's and great-uncles' plantation. She shared a room with her nine-year-old first cousin David "Day" Lacks (1915–2002).