Supercentenarian admired more for her work than her age

Dr. Leila Denmark turns 112 today, and she'll have more than a few birthday wishes sent her way.

The woman who practiced pediatric medicine in Atlanta and Athens until she was 103 now is the 24th oldest person in the world and the 10th oldest American.

But her thousands of patients and closest family hold Denmark with such high regard for her work and advice, not her longevity.

"She's got more alumni than the University of Georgia," joked daughter Mary Hutcherson, who Denmark lives with now. "But she's also got a grandson who is a doctor because of her and a whole family who loves her."

Hutcherson's son, James Hutcherson, graduated from the same medical college that Denmark went to in Augusta. He gives full credit to Denmark for inspiring him to become a family doctor.

Hutcherson and Denmark routinely talked shop with each other while both were practicing, and her influence kept expanding in his life.

"I'd ask her questions about how she'd dealt with some things," he said. "She'd laugh about some of the things I would do.

"We talked a lot about patients and how she dealt with them, and that's how I'd deal with them."

Denmark's patients recalled the little things she would do to make them feel comfortable.

Ron Haigler met Denmark the day he was born at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta.

Just as his mother took him to see Dr. Denmark, Haigler also took his children to her.

"When you had to take your shirt off for an exam, she'd put it on the radiant heater and keep it warm for you," he said. "When she'd look into your ear, she'd whistle like a bird. When she'd prick your finger, she'd do it on the side instead of the tip.

"It was just common-sense practices that not every doctor would do."

But Denmark was not just any doctor.

She was only the third female student to graduate from the Medical College of Georgia, but not before Emory University and several other schools turned her down because she was a woman, Steve Hutcherson said.

After graduating in 1928, she helped create the vaccine that cured whooping cough.

Emory named her the first physician at Henrietta Egleston Hospital, its children's hospital, when it opened, he said.

Ten years ago, the Atlanta un

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