Teaching career and start at Anderson, 1908–1927 Denmark accepted her first teaching position in 1908, shortly after her graduation from college, and taught during the 1908–1909 academic year at Buies Creek Academy—now
Campbell University—in
Buies Creek, North Carolina. One student that she taught at Buies Creek was Bessie Campbell, the daughter of
J. A. Campbell, later made the namesake of the school. Denmark received a monthly salary of $45 () in this position and spent $9 monthly () on
board. This salary was sufficient to send her to
New York City during the summer of 1909, where she studied under pianist and teacher
Rafael Joseffy. She then moved to
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where she taught for one year at the
Tennessee College for Women as the piano instructor, and afterwards took the same position at Shorter College—now
Shorter University—in
Rome, Georgia, where she stayed from 1910 to 1916. In addition to teaching piano at Shorter, she taught a
Sunday school class for young women at the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church in Rome. While teaching at Anderson, she continued her own studies. For many summers she traveled to
Chautauqua, New York, to attend the
Chautauqua Institute, and she took classes outside of her teaching schedule at Anderson during the school year. She eventually earned her
Bachelor of Arts degree from Anderson in 1925. That same year, she was appointed dean of women by President
John E. White, a position she kept for three years. White resigned as president of Anderson effective September 1, 1927, leaving the position vacant. A committee formed from three members of the school's Board of Trustees was created in order to name his successor. R. H. Holliday, the business manager of the school, was named acting president in the intervening three months while the new permanent president was being selected. Denmark was not the first choice of the Board of Trustees: Charles E. Burts and R. C. Burts, brothers who were both from
Newberry, South Carolina, each refused the job, and A. J. Barton, from
Nashville, Tennessee, could not agree to terms with the board and therefore did not take the job either. Though little is known about the exact events that led to Denmark's election, it is known that her name was put forward for consideration by college trustee J. Dexter Brown and that the Board of Trustees were in unanimous support of her appointment to the presidency when asked at their meeting on December 15, 1927.
President of Anderson College, 1928–1953 Denmark took office and became Anderson's fifth president on January 1, 1928. In doing so, she became the school's second
lay president. She is sometimes referred to as the first woman
college president in
South Carolina, though she was predated in this distinction by
Euphemia McClintock some 26 years earlier. Denmark was formally inaugurated as president just over a year later, on February 14, 1929. She marked the occasion of her inauguration by declaring that day to be the inaugural observation of the college's annual Founders Day, recognizing the anniversary of the granting of the college charter on February 14, 1911. in addition to the loss of two mills and several homes and farms in town. The college did, however, collect $20,000 () as a result of their storm insurance policy, which went towards restoring the heating plant and other general refurbishments. The school administration won a significant victory two years later when, on May 23, 1938, the South Carolina Baptist Convention assisted in paying the remainder of Anderson's debt, bringing many of the school's financial woes to a close. Enrollment climbed over the next few years and spiked noticeably after
World War II; 42 of 53 men that enrolled at Anderson in 1946–1947 were veterans, largely a result of the
G.I. Bill, and the school enrolled a record 409 students that academic year in total. Denmark helped to increase pay for Anderson faculty on multiple occasions: in May 1944, she recommended a "slight increase" in their salaries and introduced a salary bonus in March 1946. The college, still in some need of funds and a stable endowment, received $60,000 () from the Baptist State Convention sometime between 1946 and 1947, which was used to modernize some of the campus's buildings. In 1944, she worked with school administration to implement an honor code for the college under which students would be tried by their classmates, though some infractions (such as
alcohol possession) meant a student would be subject to
expulsion with no debate. Throughout her presidency, she kept close the college's ties with the church, as
chapel attendance remained a requirement for all students, five days a week, up to and through her resignation. At a meeting of the Board of Trustees on April 23, 1952, Denmark announced her resignation as president of the college, saying, This date represented the 25th anniversary, to the day, of the beginning of her term, though her successor was ultimately not found until several months later. In her letter, she referenced the school's freedom from debt and good prospects for future financial support as well as her desire to allow the new president enough time to prepare for the next academic year. The trustees were quite surprised by this request and did not accept her resignation until the conclusion of the meeting, when she insisted that they do so. She gave her final president's report on January 22, 1953; at the same meeting, president-elect
Elmer Francis Haight was introduced to the trustees. "Denmark Day" was celebrated on Founders Day of that year—February 14, 1953—during which the retiring president was honored by many former students and other guests of the college. Her official duties as president came to a close following the commencement exercises of May 22, 1953. Haight began his duties as Anderson's sixth president the following month. During her presidency, Denmark held a number of other positions within higher education: she led the Southern Association of Colleges for Women as its president from 1934 to 1935, was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Southern Baptist Women's Missionary Union Training School in
Louisville, Kentucky, and was the first woman to hold an office in the Baptist State Convention when she was its vice president in 1950. ==Later life and death==