During the 1940s and 1950s, Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb provided medical care from her office and treatment room here as a widely respected and beloved physician. One of only two doctors serving northern Wisconsin, she treated residents and tourists across more than 300 square miles, making house calls through blizzards and subzero temperatures by canoe, on foot, by snowshoe, and in a modified Model T equipped with tracks and skis. She delivered more than 3,000 babies without losing a mother or baby. By 1949, the region's need for a hospital had become urgent, and she often had to travel with patients to hospitals in larger communities or as far as Ironwood, Michigan. The Arbor Vitae-Woodruff Lions Club, churches, civic clubs, tourists, and residents helped build one on land donated by a local couple. When funding dwindled in 1952, Arbor Vitae-Woodruff High School geometry teacher Otto Burich and his class proposed collecting a million pennies, an idea that spread nationwide. On Memorial Day 1953, the Million Penny Parade in Woodruff celebrated pennies gathered from all 48 states and all continents, with 10,000 people attending. Lakeland Memorial Hospital opened debt free in Woodruff in March 1954, built through community spirit, generosity, hard work, imagination, and faith for Dr. Kate. Her life later gained national and international attention in books and major publications, she appeared on Ralph Edwards's television program This Is Your Life in March 1954, and her role as a female physician is taught in Wisconsin social studies classes.