1. What was Ms. Lacks’ background? Where was she from? When was she born?

Henrietta was born on August 1, 1920 and died on October 4, 1951. Henrietta lost her mother at the age of four. She grew up in poverty in Virginia. She left school in late elementary school and spent her days packing tobacco and working on her grandparent’s farm. At age thirty, she developed aggressive ovarian cancer. She died a few months later.