![]() Two years later, on April 10, 1941, Henrietta and Day married in a humble ceremony at their preacher’s house. Henrietta was only 14 when she gave birth to the couple’s first son, Lawrence, and a little over 18 when she brought to the world Elsie, mentally disabled. ![]() No one could have guessed back then that Henrietta would spend the rest of her life with Day: first growing up alongside him as a playmate and cousin, then as his wife and the mother of his five children. Henrietta ended up with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks, who was already raising another grandchild left by one of his daughters: Henrietta’s cousin David “Day” Lacks, five years older. Of course, nobody in Clover could afford to take all of the children, so the siblings were split among relatives. Her father wasn’t someone with enough patience to raise a child (let alone 10), so when his wife died, he took all of his children back to Clover, Virginia, “where his family still farmed the tobacco fields their ancestors had worked as slaves.” When she was four, her mother died while giving birth to her tenth child. Nobody knows how and when she became Henrietta – but, not that long after her birth, people started referring to her by her nickname: Hennie. Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant in Roanoke, Virginia, on August 1, 1920. So, get ready to join Rebecca Skloot on her journey to uncover who Henrietta Lacks was, and prepare to learn why her story is “inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans.” Henrietta Lacks: an ordinary life (1920 – 1941) Her cells, however, are still alive: taken without her knowledge (or the knowledge of her children), they are the “first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory.” And they have helped us understand the nature of numerous diseases while leading to the discovery of countless vaccines and cures. A film set behind the scenes of a home shopping channel and starring Winfrey, Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock never made it into production and a Broadway revival of the play “Night, Mother” which Winfrey was to star in with multiple Tony winning actress Audra McDonald never got off the ground either, with Winfrey saying she found the play too depressing to do eight shows a week.Buried in an unmarked grave, Henrietta Lacks was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who died aged 31 in 1951. Winfrey also has had some trouble seeing her proposed acting projects come to fruition. SEE 2017 Emmy nominations list: All the nominees Ironically her place that time was probably taken by her personal friend and frequent talk show guest Julia Roberts (“August: Osage County”) who was nominated in supporting for a clearly leading role in one of the recent cases of category fraud which seem to plague that particular Oscar category. ![]() Winfrey was in a similar situation in 2013 when she received a number of precursor nominations for her supporting turn in the film “The Butler” but then failed to make the final five on Oscar nomination day. ![]() Emmys voters don’t usually feel the need to honor shows that have been given the ax by their networks. Although Huffman is an Emmy vet and was nominated for the first two seasons of “American Crime,” her role was greatly reduced in size this season and the show itself was cancelled. Huffman’s beating out Winfrey for a nomination is the surprise here. The remaining two slots went to Carrie Coon of “Fargo” (which wasn’t a big surprise given the show’s popularity with Emmy voters and the large number of acting nominations the show has received over the years) and Felicity Huffman‘s third nom for “American Crime.” Granted Winfrey faced extremely tough competition what with the Oscar winners from “Feud” ( Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon) and “Big Little Lies” ( Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon) filling out the category.
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