Roland Pattillo helped keep Henrietta Lacks' story alive. It's key to his legacy

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/14/ [login to see] /roland-pattillo-henrietta-lacks-legacy
Dr. Roland Pattillo and his wife Pat O'Flynn Pattillo paid for Henrietta Lacks' permanent headstone, a smooth, substantial block of pink granite. It sits in the shape of a hardcover book.

Henrietta Lacks was a Black mother in Baltimore who died from cervical cancer in 1951.

Her story became the subject of a bestselling book and later an HBO movie starring Oprah Winfrey as Deborah Lacks, Henrietta's daughter, and Rose Byrne as the writer Rebecca Skloot.

The headstone was unveiled in late May, 2010 at a family cemetery in rural Clover, Va. Lacks' resting place was surrounded by her family members, the Pattillos, Skloot and others. The headstone's book design was a poignant symbol of her voluminous legacy. The Lacks family chose the words.