Birthplace of Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant on 1 Aug. 1920 in a house at this site. Her parents, John and Eliza Pleasant, had moved the family to Norfolk Ave. and 11th St. by 1923. After her mother’s death in 1924, she lived with relatives in Clover, VA. She married David Lacks in 1941 and had five children. On 4 Oct. 1951, she died of cervical cancer in Baltimore. Tissue was removed for research without permission, as was typical before such practices were abolished. Lacks’s cells, known as the HeLa line, were the first human cells to multiply indefinitely in a laboratory. Used by scientists worldwide, her cells have contributed to many medical breakthroughs. Lacks is buried in Halifax County.