Those We Lost — October 4

Honoring those we lost on October 4 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Henrietta Lacks

Born August 1, 1920 — died October 4, 1951

Source of the HeLa cell line

While Lacks was being treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1951, cells from her tumor were taken without her consent, as was then the practice. George Gey cultured them into HeLa, the first immortalized human cell line. HeLa became one of the most important cell lines in medical research and is still used today.

Art Farmer

Born August 21, 1928 — died October 4, 1999

Jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, and bandleader

Farmer was admired for lyrical phrasing, warm tone, and his work with the Jazztet, Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, Benny Golson, and many other modern-jazz innovators. He helped popularize the flugelhorn in jazz and later performed on the flumpet, an instrument combining qualities of trumpet and flugelhorn. He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 1999.

Diahann Carroll

Born July 17, 1935 — died October 4, 2019

Actor, singer, model, and Broadway performer

Carroll won a Tony Award for No Strings, earned an Academy Award nomination for Claudine, and became the first Black woman to lead a network television series in a non-domestic role through Julia. Her career broke representational barriers while demonstrating the dramatic and musical range available to Black leading women on stage and screen.