Not only was statue of her dedicated today in downtown Roanoke across from the municipal building – this is also “Henrietta Lacks Day,” across the Commonwealth noted Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea Senior. Unique cancer cells harvested from Lacks, who died in 1951, are still being used for research today. Lea also noted that while the monument to Robert E Lee is now gone from the plaza, the downtown pocket park still honors veterans of foreign wars who were from the City of Roanoke. Mayor Lea after the statue unveiling at what is now Henrietta Lacks Plaza:
