She became a school principal in 1929, when she was 24 years old, despite protests that she was a "flapper", too young, reckless, and female for the job.

[2] She also oversaw the county's first special education programming,[12] and emphasized expansion and modernization of school buildings in the county; during her tenure, some rural schools gained indoor plumbing, telephones, libraries and cafeterias for the first time.

[2][15] In 1969, Doyle fought efforts to ban The Catcher in the Rye from Knox County Schools.

[2] She also defended the original Tarzan novels against creationists' concerns that Burroughs' books promoted a theory of evolution.

In 1983, she and her surviving siblings donated over 25 acres of the family farm to become Charter E. Doyle Park.

[26] Her papers were donated to the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection at the Knox County Public Library, by Patterson and the Doyle family.