Who Is Henrietta Lacks? Age, Biography and Wiki
Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, and tragically passed away on October 4, 1951. As of 2025, if she were alive, she would be 105 years old. While she had a brief life marked by many challenges, Lacks is remembered primarily for her contributions to science through the HeLa immortal cell line, derived from her cervical cancer cells without her knowledge or consent. Her cells have been indispensable in various medical advancements and research, leading to breakthroughs in cancer treatment, vaccine development, and more.
| Occupation | Medicine |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | August 1, 1920 |
| Age | 31 Years |
| Birth Place | Roanoke, Virginia, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Leo |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 4 October, 1951 |
| Died Place | Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
Popularity
Henrietta Lacks's Popularity over time
Height, Weight & Measurements
While there is limited documented information about Henrietta Lacks’s physical attributes, she is often described as a woman of average height and build for her era. As a historical figure, exact measurements are not available; however, her legacy as vital to medical science far surpasses any physical evaluations.
Family, Dating & Relationship status
Henrietta Lacks was married to David Lacks in 1941, and the couple had five children: Lawrence, Elsie, David Jr., Deborah, and Zakariyya. Her family history has been marked by both triumph and tragedy, especially regarding the ethical concerns surrounding the use of her cells. While there is no mention of any boyfriend or relationships beyond her marriage during her lifetime, her legacy continues through her descendants, who have worked to ensure her story is told and her contributions recognized.
She is remembered as having hazel eyes, a small waist, size 6 shoes, and always wearing red nail polish and a neatly pleated skirt. 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's father moved the family to Clover, Virginia, where the children were distributed among relatives.
Lacks ended up with her maternal grandfather, Thomas "Tommy" Henry 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 first cousin and future husband, David "Day" Lacks (1915–2002).
Net Worth and Salary
Although Henrietta Lacks did not accumulate a net worth in the conventional sense during her lifetime, her immortal HeLa cells have generated billions of dollars in revenue for pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology firms. In 2025, discussions about reparations and recognition for her contributions have prompted a renewed interest in the ethical implications of medical research, sparking conversations on how her family should be compensated.
Career, Business and Investments
Henrietta Lacks’s career was primarily centered around her roles as a mother and housewife. However, her cells revolutionized medical research, creating the HeLa cell line, which has been utilized in numerous studies and developments within the medical field. Following her passing, there has been a significant movement towards acknowledging the importance of ethical practices in science and research, a conversation greatly influenced by Lacks’s story.
In March 2013, researchers published the DNA sequence of the genome of a strain of HeLa cells. The Lacks family discovered this when the author Rebecca Skloot informed them. There were objections from the Lacks family about the genetic information that was available for public access.
Jeri Lacks Whye, a grandchild of Henrietta Lacks, said to The New York Times, "the biggest concern was privacy—what information was actually going to be out there about our grandmother, and what information they can obtain from her sequencing that will tell them about her children and grandchildren and going down the line." That same year another
group working on a different HeLa cell line's genome under National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, submitted it for publication.
In August 2013, an agreement was announced between the family and the NIH that gave the family some control over access to the cells' DNA sequence found in the two studies along with a promise of acknowledgement in scientific papers. In addition, two family members will join the six-member committee that will regulate access to the sequence data.
Social Network
Since her story began to gain prominence, particularly after Rebecca Skloot’s bestselling book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," the Lacks family has embraced social media platforms to raise awareness about Henrietta’s legacy, promote health equity, and advocate for changes in medical research ethics. They maintain an active presence in online discussions and forums dedicated to genetics and medical ethics, fostering a community that honors her contributions.
Like most members of her family living in Clover, Lacks worked as a tobacco farmer starting from an early age. She fed the animals, tended the garden, and toiled in the tobacco fields. She attended the designated black school two miles away from the cabin until she had to drop out to help support the family when she was in the sixth grade.
When Lacks was 14 years old, she gave birth to a son, Lawrence Lacks (1935–2023). Both children were fathered by Day Lacks. Elsie had epilepsy and cerebral palsy and was described by the family as "different" or "deaf and dumb".
Education
Due to the socio-economic conditions of her time, Henrietta Lacks did not have a formal education beyond elementary school. However, her legacy has inspired considerable educational initiatives focusing on health disparities, ethics in research, and the importance of informed consent in scientific practices. Educational programs now incorporate her story as a critical case study in medical ethics.
George Otto Gey, the first researcher to study Lacks's cancerous cells, observed that these cells were unusual in that they reproduced at a very high rate and could be kept alive long enough to allow more in-depth examination.
Until then, cells cultured for laboratory studies survived for only a few days at most, which was not long enough to perform a variety of different tests on the same sample. Lacks's cells were the first to be observed that could be divided multiple times without dying, which is why they became known as "immortal".
After Lacks's death, Gey had Mary Kubicek, his lab assistant, take further HeLa samples while Henrietta's body was at Johns Hopkins' autopsy facility. The roller-tube technique was the method used to culture the cells obtained from the samples that Kubicek collected.
Gey was able to start a cell line from Lacks's sample by isolating one specific cell and repeatedly dividing it, meaning that the same cell could then be used for conducting many experiments. They became known as HeLa cells, because Gey's standard method for labeling samples was to use the first two letters of the patient's first and last names.
