FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Caring for others has been Agatha Tourney’s passion and service.

“I’ve always loved nursing,” Tourney said. “We were encouraged at my school to join the Army, so I did.”

She spent 18 months in the Army during World War Two serving in Wisconsin and Georgia where she took care of Japanese Prisoners of War and was the head nurse for 23 wards of amputees.

“To get them one day off the battlefield and see them with protheses and then go through the different stages through the wards. They’d always came back to show me their prothesis. I enjoyed my time in the service. I was needed and I went,” Tourney said.

After her time in the Army, Tourney got her bachelors degree in nursing, her masters degree in psychiatric social work and then taught nursing at Purdue. She got to “pin” her own daughter when she graduated and also became a nurse.

The mom of five and grandma to six still serves veterans by crocheting scarves for Clothes for Joes.

“It’s something to do and to help somebody else,” Tourney said. “I’m not as active as I used to be, but I can do that!”

Veterans across the country are also recognizing her. She’s received more than 150 birthday cards in the mail.

While her birthday is November 27, her 100th birthday celebration party is on November 12.