Catherine Henley was born in January 1922. She attended the College of William and Mary, Norfolk Division, from 1939 to 1941, transferring to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, to earn her A.B. in 1943. Henley received her M.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1947 and returned to the University of North Carolina to complete a Ph.D. in zoology in 1949. Her Ph.D. thesis, Chromosomal Mosaicism and Abnormalities of Mitosis Produced by Experimental Temperature Shock on the Developing Embryos of Triturus Torosus, was directed by University of North Carolina Kenan Professor of Zoology Donald P. Costello (1909-1978), for whom Henley was research assistant or co-investigator from 1947 to 1976.
Henley, Donald P. Costello, and his wife, Helen M. Costello, were all active in research projects conducted in the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass. From 1951 to 1968, Henley also edited, proofread, and indexed a bi-monthly national professional journal, The Biological Bulletin .
From the guide to the Catherine Henley Papers (#4979), 1944-1983, (Southern Historical Collection)
