c. 1998 Religion News Service
ALPHARETTA, Ga. _ Some of her fans call Dr. Leila Denmark”the Mother Teresa of Atlanta”and well they might. Not only does the 100-year-old physician bear a physical resemblance to the late nun from Calcutta but, admirers say, Denmark also mirrors Mother Teresa’s single-minded ministry of compassion.
Denmark, who marked her 100th birthday Feb. 1, is the oldest practicing physician in the nation, according to American Medical Association records. She still puts in 10- and 12- hour days, four days a week and still charges just $10 a visit.
And for 56 years, she donated her”off day”to a well-baby clinic at Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Atlanta, reaching out to provide care to inner-city mothers. Her ministry there ended only after she turned 90 and could no longer drive in downtown traffic any more.”A visit to her little office is a spiritual experience, a blessing from heaven,”said Paula Lewis of Smyrna, who calls Denmark”our family saint.””She’s doing just what the Bible teaches _ heal the sick.” Denmark keeps her office in a 120-year-old log cabin”out in the yard”of her rural home, 30 miles north of Atlanta. She still uses the same wooden examining table she started on 70 years ago. Her sparse office displays no diplomas, plaques or awards. Every photograph in her office was donated by grateful mothers of her thousands of patients.
She doesn’t make appointments and has no secretary. She averages seeing 15 patients per day, and sometimes as many as 25. Her daughter comes on Denmark’s”off”day _ Thursday _ to help with paperwork.
One of Denmark’s most devoted patients is Wayne Colquitt of Jonesboro, who was born with a congenital hearing deficiency. Some doctors as far away as Memphis and Chicago”wrote him off as a limited, handicapped person,”recalled his mother, Frances.”But we heard of Dr. Denmark, took Wayne to her and thus began a lifelong doctor-patient relationship.”Dr. Denmark sat Wayne down and talked to him. She got his confidence. She made him believe in himself. She is absolutely wonderful. Children trust her. Wayne trusted her. With her guidance and encouragement, he learned to read lips, became a success in school, sports and business. He gives all the credit to Dr. Leila Denmark,”Colquitt said.
Lewis noted several things about Denmark that everyone familiar with her medical techniques mentions.”She is different,”Lewis said.”She is strict. She is straight. She is blunt. She is courageous. She has strong opinions. But they are usually correct.” Denmark, for example, believes sugar is the major cause of poor health. She said she has not knowingly eaten sugar in 65 years. She also abhors milk for children, saying humans are the only creatures who drink the milk of other animals, and that can’t be healthy.
Denmark also preaches loud and long about the primary place of mothers in the home, arguing every mother should stay at home from the time her first child is born until the youngest child is at least seven.”Dr. Denmark also believes every child and every mother should be treated with the utmost respect,”Lewis said.”Though all eight of my children and all of my grandchildren have been her long-time patients, she still calls me `Mrs. Lewis,’ not `Paula.’ When she calls me that, I feel a little more important, too.” The doctor is still a woman of strong opinions.”I remember listening to the suffragettes in the 1920s,”Denmark said in an interview.”They would come to our little town of Portal and put on the dramatic playlet,”10 Nights In A Bar Room.”Then they would step out on the stage and say, `When women get the vote, you’ll never see this again.” But, she added,”women got the vote in 1922. What have we done with it? Now we can kill our babies; that’s what we’ve done with it. I believe in women having freedom. But with our freedom we have abandoned our children and wrecked our nation. Forty percent of the women who work outside the home lose their husbands. Is that progress?” The century-old doctor added:”When I began practicing pediatrics in 1928, there were only 23 pediatricians in Georgia; now there are 1,100. We need more pediatricians now because our babies are sickly; our mothers aren’t raising them the right way. “We now have immunizations _ the greatest thing to happen to child care in this century. We have baby food, clean water and clean milk. We can take care of our babies properly, if we will just do it.” For her own part, Denmark drinks absolutely no liquids except water. She still hikes in the mountains, walks several miles each afternoon and plays golf.”I play 18 holes, mind you, not just nine holes,”she said. She would not eat a bite of her 100th birthday cake _”too much sugar.”Her only admitted addiction is roast beef, well done.
Breaking down barriers and stereotypes is not new for Denmark. In 1928, she was the only woman graduate of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. She was the first doctor certified on the staff of the famed Egleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta, a post she held for more than 60 years.
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For years, her husband, John, who died in 1991, kept her books and managed her office. He was a banker who retired as vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. An avid golfer and gardener, John would often sit and talk about roses with anxious mothers waiting to see his wife.
In 1985, the couple moved 20 miles north of Alpharetta onto an 82-acre tract they owned and built a home duplicating in detail the home they had left. They renovated a small log cabin, which became Denmark’s new office.
Her army of mothers and babies followed her to Alpharetta and they still come, from all over metro Atlanta.
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Friends describe Denmark’s career in missionary terms.”I’m a Christian and I seek out Christian friends,”said Julia Ogletree of Dunwoody, who has used Denmark as her family doctor for a decade.”By her fruits and her attitude I know Leila Denmark is a committed Christian. She has convinced me and many others that motherhood is a sacred calling, a divine vocation, not a job or a burden.”I did hear her say one time,”Ogletree recalled with a laugh,”that, except for Adam, no person has come into the world except by a woman, and that’s a big responsibility. She does know her Bible.”We do what she tells us and our babies rarely get sick,”she added.”She is a Christian missionary in the highest sense.” Denmark’s sense of steadfast loyalty to principle is also seen in her church life, said her former pastor. For more than 65 years she has been a member of Druid Hills Baptist Church in Atlanta. Until she got too old to drive, she was there every Sunday. Her husband was a deacon at the church for four decades.
Druid Hills Baptist held a special service in honor of Denmark’s 100th birthday on Feb. 8 and gave a financial gift to the well-baby clinic at Central Presbyterian Church in her honor.”This devoted couple would always be there, in their favorite pew, every Sunday,”said Harold Zwald, pastor emeritus at Druid Hills Baptist.”They never sought acclaim, despite the great heights they achieved in their careers.” At the celebration, messages came from President Bill Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter. Phone calls came from as far away as Sweden, England and Australia.”I don’t deserve all this recognition,”she told a reporter.”My only mission in life has been to give a child a chance.” DEA END HARWELL
