Dr. Kate's parade marches on

Posted: March 9, 2003

Dennis McCann

Woodruff - It's a rare woman who can lead an anniversary parade 50 years after the first march in her honor paraded through town.

Not to mention, though it probably should be mentioned, lead a parade 47 years after her death.

But no one ever said Dr. Kate Newcomb was anything short of rare and remarkable, and when the 50th anniversary Million Penny Parade steps smartly through the streets of Woodruff this spring it will once again honor the woman who, through rain and sleet and snow and the harshest winters, delivered the male - and female - residents of the woodsy north for many years.

Which makes for a sizable base of viewers.

"There's a lot of Dr. Kate babies up here," said Larry Greschner, Woodruff town chairman. "We're finding quite a few of them and would like as many as possible to be with us."

Dr. Kate's story is one of the best known in the north. Kate Pelham Newcomb was born in Kansas, raised in Boston, trained in Buffalo and began her medical career in the down-and-out sections of New York, where she delivered the first 800 or so of her estimated 4,000 career babies before moving to Detroit, which is hardly the expected career path of a North Woods doctor. Late in her life, she laughed at the fact that she once turned down a marriage proposal from another doctor because he wanted a country practice.

Snowshoes and canoe

Naturally, she eventually married an auto plant worker named Bill Newcomb who wanted only to live in the woods. Dr. Kate arrived in the lake and forest region of Wisconsin in 1923 and, after spending a few years away from medicine after the death of her first child, began to serve the considerable needs of her far-flung neighbors in 1931.

It wasn't easy. She was the only doctor for a sprawling population of about 7,000 - and many more during warm months - and harsh winters often made visits to patients a grueling test. She took to wearing snowshoes when emergencies coincided with heavy snows, or traveling by canoe if flooding was the issue, or on foot if need be, all of which added to the eventual legend of the "Angel on Snowshoes."

"Never go into a sick room without a prayer on your lips," she would say. And she never did.

The region had a doctor, finally, but no hospital. So early in the 1950s, she set out to raise funds for a facility. At the same time, a local school effort to demonstrate how much a million was led to a student drive to collect 1 million pennies, all of which would go toward her hospital. Thus was born the first Million Penny Parade in 1953.

Even with that help, the hospital fund was short more than $30,000, which was when Dr. Kate's story went Hollywood. Brought to California for what she thought would be a medical conference, Newcomb wound up instead on the popular "This Is Your Life" television program, where host Ralph Edwards pleaded with viewers to help erase the shortfall.

They did, and how. Within days, so much mail had poured into the tiny Woodruff post office that workers used bushel baskets, banana crates and cardboard boxes to hold letters that ultimately yielded more than $100,000.

Woodruff gave their hero doctor a second parade in 1954. According to news accounts, it was the biggest ever in the north, with 90 floats, 15 marching bands and 25,000 viewers to soak it all in.

Just two years after she was so celebrated, Newcomb was mourned when she fell in 1956, broke a hip and died of complications from surgery. She was 69.

No one can say if the anniversary parade crowd will match that, but even if only "Dr. Kate babies" turn out it would be a sizable audience. They would be mostly seniors by now or at least have gray on the temples, and it probably makes sense to bring them back at this time.

"We thought most people won't be around for the 100th," Greschner said, "so we might as well do this one."

School kids are getting in on the act as well, in a traditional way. A drive is under way to collect 1 million pennies once again, this time to fund scholarships in education and medicine and to support the Dr. Kate Museum in Woodruff, on the site of her former office. The "world's largest penny" stands by a marker out front.

The 50th anniversary of the Million Penny Parade on May 24 will be just one of a number of activities that day. There will be an arts and crafts show, games and entertainment, highlighted by the parade through downtown Woodruff at 11 a.m. A reception will be held later in the day for all "Dr. Kate Babies" in attendance.

For more, contact the Woodruff town office at or the area Chamber of Commerce at .