A Heart for Healing

A Look at the Life of Dr. Leila Denmark

Even as a youngster, Dr. Leila Daughtry Denmark (’18) was a healer, treating sick animals on her family’s Portal, Ga. farm. The third woman to graduate from the Medical College of Georgia, Denmark’s love for the field of medicine was only matched by her desire to make sure she did her best to help children.

Until her retirement at the age of 103, Denmark treated thousands of children in her private pediatric practice and also as a volunteer for more than 50 years at the Central Presbyterian Baby Clinic in downtown Atlanta, where she helped develop the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine.

The beloved pediatrician and medical pioneer was the oldest living alumna of First District A&M School (now Georgia Southern University), when she passed away in April at the age of 114. “She loved her two years at the A&M, and she worked in the dairy, separating cream,” recalled her daughter, Mary Hutcherson.

After graduating from Tift College in 1922, Denmark taught high school science and then entered the Medical College of Georgia in 1924, the only female in her freshman class. Denmark graduated in 1928, married John Eustace Denmark and moved to Atlanta, where she began volunteering at Grady Hospital. Later that year, Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children (now Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta), opened and Denmark became the first intern and also admitted the first patient at the facility.

After the birth of her daughter, Mary in 1930, Denmark opened a small home-based private practice, which she operated for more than 70 years. Mothers and babies flocked to her office at all hours for care and her patients often spanned generations of families. Denmark was frequently quoted as saying, “Every child should have a chance. Do what you can to help.”

In fact, Denmark published the popular book Every Child Should Have a Chance in 1971, which detailed her thoughts on the care of children and emphasized good parenting, nutrition, immunizations, discipline and preventing illness.

Denmark never felt that her work as a pediatrician was just a job. She often said, “Doing what you don’t like is work. Doing what you like is play. I have never worked a day in my life.”

During her lifetime, Denmark received numerous awards and recognition from Tift College, Mercer University, Georgia Southern and the Medical College of Georgia, as well as honorary doctorates from Emory University and Tift College. In 1935, she was presented with the Fisher Award for her outstanding research in diagnosis, treatment and immunization of whooping cough.

In addition to Denmark’s daughter, Mary, she is survived by grandsons, Steven and James Hutcherson, and two great-grandchildren, Jake and Hayden Hutcherson.