Leila Denmark
Encyclopedia
Leila Alice Denmark is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 pediatrician
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...

. She was once the oldest practicing pediatrician in the world, until she retired in May 2001 at the age of 103. She is one of the rare supercentenarians
Supercentenarian
A supercentenarian is someone who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians....

 known for reasons other than longevity. At age , she is currently the 6th-oldest verified living person in the world and the 4th-oldest verified living person in the United States. On 27 November 2011, at age 113 years 299 days, she became one of the 100 oldest people ever.

Early life

Born in Portal, Georgia
Portal, Georgia
Portal is a town in Bulloch County, Georgia, United States. The population was 597 at the 2000 census.- Geography :Portal is located at ....

, Denmark was the third of 12 children born to Elerbee and Alice Cornelia Hendricks Daughtry. She is the only one still living. Her paternal uncle was Missouri Congressman James Alexander Daugherty
James Alexander Daugherty
James Alexander Daugherty was a Democratic Representative from southwest Missouri.Daugherty was born in Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee, August 30, 1847. He moved to Missouri with his parents, who settled near Carterville, Jasper County, in 1867. As an adult he was active in all civic...

. She attended Tift College
Tift College
Tift College was a private liberal arts women's college located in Forsyth, Georgia. Its campus was situated 20 miles outside of Macon. Tift College merged with Mercer University in 1986 and was closed by Mercer in 1987....

 in Forsyth, Georgia
Forsyth, Georgia
Forsyth is a city in Monroe County, Georgia, United States. The population was 3,776 at the 2000 census. This number was corrected to read 4,300. The city is the county seat of Monroe County.Forsyth is part of the Macon Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, where she trained to be a teacher, but decided to attend medical school
Medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...

 when her fiancé, John E. Denmark, was posted to Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

, Dutch Indies, by the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

 and no wives were allowed. She was the only woman in the 1928 graduating class of the Medical College of Georgia
Medical College of Georgia
Georgia Health Sciences University formerly known as, and now home of the, Medical College of Georgia , is a public academic health center, with its main campus located in the Medical District of Augusta, Georgia. It is the smallest of four research universities in the University System of Georgia...

, and married soon after graduation. Denmark is credited as co-developer of the pertussis
Pertussis
Pertussis, also known as whooping cough , is a highly contagious bacterial disease caused by Bordetella pertussis. Symptoms are initially mild, and then develop into severe coughing fits, which produce the namesake high-pitched "whoop" sound in infected babies and children when they inhale air...

 (whooping cough) vaccine
Vaccine
A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...

 in the 1920s and 1930s.

Medical career

Following graduation, she accepted a residency at Grady Memorial Hospital
Grady Memorial Hospital
Grady Memorial Hospital, frequently referred to as Grady Hospital or simply Grady, is the largest hospital in the state of Georgia and the public hospital for the city of Atlanta. It is the 5th largest public hospital in the United States, as well as one the busiest Level I trauma centers in the...

 in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

 and moved to the Morningside-Lenox Park
Morningside-Lenox Park
Morningside/Lenox Park is a residential neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia founded in 1931. It is located north of Virginia-Highland, east of Ansley Park and west of Druid Hills...

 neighborhood with her husband. Denmark was the first physician on staff at Henrietta Eggleston Hospital, a pediatric hospital
Children's hospital
A children's hospital is a hospital which offers its services exclusively to children . The number of children's hospitals proliferated in the 20th century, as pediatric medical and surgical specialties separated from internal medicine and adult surgical specialties...

 on the Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...

 campus, when it opened. In private practice, she saw patients in a clinic at her home and devoted a substantial amount of her professional time to charity. She never refused a referral from the public health department. On March 9, 2000, the Georgia General Assembly
Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, being composed of the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate....

 honored her in a resolution.

Denmark outlined her views on child-rearing in her book Every Child Should Have A Chance, published in 1971. She was among the first doctors to object to cigarette smoking around children, and drug use in pregnant women. She believes that drinking cow's milk is harmful, and that children (and adults) should eat fruit instead of drinking fruit juices
Juice
Juice is the liquid that is naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue.Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fruit or vegetable flesh without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree...

, and drink only water.

Later life

On her 100th birthday
Centenarian
A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...

 in 1998, she refused cake because there was too much sugar in it. When she refused cake again on her 103rd birthday, she explained to the restaurant's server that she had not had any food with sugar in it (other than natural sugar like fruit) in 70 years. She wrote a second book, published in 2002, with Madia Bowman titled Dr. Denmark Said It!: Advice for Mothers from America's Most Experienced Pediatrician (Paperback).

Denmark lived in Alpharetta, Georgia
Alpharetta, Georgia
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 34,854 people, 13,911 households, and 8,916 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,631.6 people per square mile . There were 14,670 housing units at an average density of 686.7 per square mile...

 until age 106, when she moved to Athens, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...

 to live with her only daughter, Mary Hutcherson. On February 1, 2008, Denmark celebrated her 110th birthday
Supercentenarian
A supercentenarian is someone who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians....

, becoming a supercentenarian. According to Hutcherson, Denmark's health deteriorated severely in the autumn of 2008, but had since improved. In addition to Hutcherson, her only child, Denmark has two grandchildren, Steven and James, and two great-grandchildren, Jake and Hayden.

See also


External links

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