Henrietta Lacks historical marker; Clover, VA; 2013-07-14

Henrietta Lacks historical marker, located about 15 meters west of the intersection of James D. Hagood Highway (US 360) and Clover Road (SR 92)/Guill Town Road (SR 720).

It reads:

U53 HENRIETTA LACKS (1920 - 1951) Born in Roanoke on 1 Aug. 1920, Henrietta Pleasant lived here with relatives after her mother's 1924 death. She married David Lacks in 1941 and, like many other African Americans, moved to Baltimore, Md. for wartime employment. She died of cervical cancer on 4 Oct. 1951. Cell tissue was removed without permission (as usual then) for medical research. Her cells multipled and survived at an extraordinarily high rate, and are renowned worldwide as the "HeLa line," the "gold standard" of cell lines. Jonas Salk developed his polio vaccine with them. Henrietta Lacks, who in death saved countless lives, is buried nearby.