Past Tense GA

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Legendary pediatrician Dr. Denmark lived in Sandy Springs

Every now and then I open a book that once belonged to my mom and discover that she placed a note or a newspaper article inside. That was something she did whenever she read an article in the newspaper that related to one of her books. I love to find these hidden treasures.

I still purchase paper books occasionally, but I also have many books on my Kindle. How can I place a relevant newspaper article inside a Kindle book?

I opened mom’s copy of “Every Child Should Have a Chance” (1971), by Leila Daughtry-Denmark, M. D. and found a newspaper clipping. Mom spoke often of Dr. Denmark.

Dr. Denmark was born in Bulloch County, Georgia in 1898. She studied at Tift College in Forsyth Georgia and Mercer University in Macon. She was the third woman graduate of the Medical College of Georgia, graduating in 1928.

In the 1940s, Denmark and her husband built a home in Sandy Springs. A road which runs between Boylston Drive and Roswell Road through the City Springs development was named Denmark Drive in her honor in 2018.

The newspaper article tucked inside an envelope within Dr. Denmark’s book was from the People section of the April 1, 1986 edition of The Atlanta Constitution. “Nothing is forgotten in Dr. Denmark’s office,” reads the title of the piece written by Jack Wilkinson.

Wilkinson writes, “The parking lot beside the old white farmhouse was full. The cars came from Cobb and Gwinnett, Floyd and Fulton, DeKalb and Cherokee counties. Some people had driven an hour to get here. All were bound for the 100-year-old Forsyth County farmhouse that now serves as a doctor’s office. All sought the care of a pediatrician who is nearly as old as the farmhouse itself.”

Dr. Denmark had been practicing medicine for 58 years by 1986 and she was 98 years old. Denmark and her retired husband moved from Sandy Springs to their country farmhouse in 1985.

The mothers who were in the office the day Wilkinson visited spoke of their concern over what they would do once Dr. Denmark could no longer be their children’s doctor. Her personalized care and concern for every child made her a special doctor, plus after all those years working as a pediatrician her expertise could not be denied. She also charged a lower fee than most other doctors in 1986.

When Denmark began practicing medicine in 1928, she was the eighth pediatrician in Atlanta. She continued her work until the age of 103 and died in 2012 at the age of 114.