Henry James Foots was born to Porter Foots Sr. (1917 - 2005) and Addie Virginia Hamilton (1924 - 2017) in Texas. Records indicate that he lived his entire life in Harris County Texas. He had five siblings.
Featured on "My 600 Pound Life" Season 1 on TLC, Henry had a near-death experience after his second skin removal surgery. After, he said "I saw a white light. It was just like having an out of body experience. There was the light to take me to Heaven [but] I wasn't ready for it, because there's so much here on earth I haven't did yet."
At age 47, he weighed 750 pounds and decided to lose weight for his upcoming high school reunion. Opting for gastric bypass surgery, Henry lost 475 pounds in total and also had surgeries to remove excess skin.
On August 21 2011, he married his long time girlfriend Lycurgus "Kirk" (Walker) Foots with whom he had lived for a number of years. According to Texas marriage records, he was age 53 and she was age 61. They were married in Harris County Texas. Lycurgus would later share that because of Henry's weight she often felt more like a caretaker rather than a partner and this put a strain on their relationship.
On November 29, 2012, Henry suffered an unspecified "medical incident" that caused him to pass out while driving a shuttle bus. The resulting accident caused the bus to hit an SUV and then run into a woman standing on the corner. She died from her injuries. The 11 passengers on the bus were injured but none of the injuries were life-threatening. The shuttle bus was providing transportation for the Texas Medical Center. Henry recovered. See Shuttle bus crash victim identified for more details.
Henry died on May 16, 2013, several months after the shuttle bus accident, due to undisclosed reasons. His death was unrelated to the bus accident and his weight loss. He was the first cast member who died, the second being another death, 41 year old Robert Buchel, in 2017. See My 600 Lb Life deaths: .
Also see Henry James Foots: Obituary.
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Before photos we had paintings of family members - most usually these were reserved for the well off. The era of modern photography began with the daguerreotype, in 1839. Since the advent of photogr...