In 1942, the world was engulfed in war and Patricia Ricketts wanted to do her bit.

It was a year after Pearl Harbor. Two brothers were already in the Navy and another was training to be a pilot.

Young Pat, then doing secretarial work for her famous father in New York, couldn’t sit at home.

AT AGE 96, Ricketts died in her Oak Harbor home Nov. 25 close to family, one of the few remaining female World War II veterans in the area. Her friend, and fellow veteran, Eva Brown died in October.

At age 23, she enlisted in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and went to bootcamp and Officer Candidate School. She served four years, including as the commanding officer of a squadron in India responsible for the movement of troops and supplies.

She served as a leader in the military long before such a thing was even a thought for most women.

Then she went on to accomplish much more in her life: she worked as a secretary for high-ranking officials at Pan American Airways and became a firsthand witness to the Great Space Race to put American astronauts on the moon. She raised four children as a single mother and was an athlete into her 80s.

Her daughter, Pat Lamont, said her mother was an upbeat soul who would be hard pressed to say a negative thing about anyone or anything.

“She was always smiling, always happy all the time,” said her daughter.

RICKETTS WAS born Patricia Collier on Oct. 16, 1919, the daughter of Robert Collier, an author best known for his bestseller, “The Secret of the Ages.”

She was one of six siblings and for life remained close to her identical twin sister, Dorothea.

She grew up and attended schools in New York and Sarasota, Fla., eventually attending college at Florida Southern.

Her enlistment was big news in her local newspaper, the Daily News in Tarrytown, N.Y. In an Aug. 17, 1942 article, the reporter pointed out that she “is well known to Daily News readers as a tennis champion.” She and her twin sister won the Florida State Women’s Doubles Title. The story noted she was working as her father’s private secretary in his New York office.

“I was anxious to do my part in the war effort and felt that this was the way I could do it,” she told the newspaper.

IN A written account, Ricketts recalled her first duty station at Rosecrans Field in St. Joseph, Mo., a training base for B-25 pilots. She played on the base softball and basketball teams and when the base commanding officer found out she played tennis, he frequently pulled her off work early to play with him and other officers.

“Our days were busy with inspections, orientations, pulling duty officer duty, writing reports, and generally overseeing the (enlisted women’s) activities,” she said. “There were always good movies at the base theater, plus the officer’s club always had something going on, so we were never bored.”

She gave two brides away at the base chapel, women who chose to marry before their husbands left for war.

A friend in Washington, D.C., called and asked her to join her overseas in India, and Ricketts was eager to see the world. She took a long flight on a C-54 with metal bucket seats so uncomfortable she scrunched up on the floor and slept. One stopover before her duty station was Casablanca. She tried to go dancing at the officer’s club but was turned away for wearing slacks.

“Next we went to the hotel roof to see Casablanca by moonlight — it was beautiful,” she said.

AT ANOTHER stop, in Cairo, Ricketts took a trip on a camel to see the pyramids and the sphinx.

Finally, she reached her base in Karachi, India. The base was a jumping off point for air flights, and it was her responsibility to manage troops and supplies.

“Our base was several miles from town and we were not allowed to go into town without an escort,” she said. “We were also instructed never to eat anything from any of the local establishments.”

The days flew by, a mix of military duties and exploration of the area. She sailed, camped, hunted and fished. It’s here that she met her first husband and the father of her children, Harvey Miller Jr., a fellow officer on base. He asked to marry her on the back of a camel.

On August 14, 1945, Japan surrendered. In Karachi, everyone celebrated with a parade, a baseball game, donuts and coffee, and a beer ration of eight cans.

“Everyone was so happy,” she said.

AS A child, Pat Lamont doesn’t remember her mother talking about her service.

“I asked her why she never told me,” Lamont said. “She said, ‘Well, it was a short part of my life, and I didn’t think it was something you’d be interested in.’”

Ricketts became a single mother in her 40s and set about raising four children alone while working full-time as a secretary for executives at Pan American Airways.

Ricketts excelled at her PanAm job, Lamont remembered, but didn’t particularly care for housekeeping or cooking. She bought her kids a pool table to keep them busy and a ski boat.

She continued to play competitive tennis, winning major tournaments into her 60s. In 1988 she won her age division of the Pan Am World Tennis Championships in singles.

During this time, she also met and married John Ricketts. He lived next door, and while his wife was dying of cancer, Ricketts would come over to help. They shared a love of golf and tennis and spent 20 years together traveling the world before he died.

RICKETTS MOVED to Oak Harbor in 1990 to be closer to Pat Lamont and her family. In recent years, she lived in a house next to her daughter.

She was part of a small group of World War II women veterans who met at the Oak Harbor Senior Center. In her final years, she remained mentally sharp as a tack. She devoured a mystery novel just about everyday and loved watching sports, especially the Seattle Seahawks. She supported WAIF financially and adopted a rescue Doberman, Mia, a sweetheart of a pooch who nevertheless looked lethal enough to keep ne’er-do-wells away from her rural home.

On Oct. 16, Ricketts celebrated her 96th birthday with a big party at a restaurant in Anacortes. Four days later, Pat Lamont got a call from her mother.

“She said, ‘I feel really awful, could you come over here,’” Lamont said.

Her mother could barely breathe. She was rushed to Whidbey General Hospital, where doctors discovered she’d suffered a heart attack and may also have had pneumonia.

A few days later she seemed to be recovering but she suffered another heart attack.

THE FAMILY arranged hospice care and Ricketts came home. She remained alert and family stayed by her side. So, too, did her dog, Mia.

The day before Thanks-giving, Ricketts died in her sleep.

In later years, Ricketts seemed surprised anyone even remembered that women served in the military during World War II.

On Memorial Day, the family would take her to the parade in Coupeville and the picnic afterward in the park.

Lamont would go to get her mom a hot dog and return to find a line of young veterans who wanted to chat and shake her hand.

“She just thought it was an honor to be recognized,” said her daughter.