The oldest female US veteran, who served in the Pacific during World War II, passed away at her home in Texas at the age of 108. Lucy Coffey was the second oldest veteran in the country. She died in her sleep overnight in San Antonio on Thursday after falling ill earlier in the week with a chronic cough. Coffey grew up on a farm in Martinsville, Indiana before she left for Chicago and then Dallas, where she was working at an A&P supermarket the day Japan dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Two years later Coffey, at the age of 37, enlisted in the newly created Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and served in the Pacific. Scroll down for video . Lucy Coffey, the oldest female US veteran, passed away at her home in San Antonio at the age of 108 . Coffey left her job at a Dallas grocery store and enlisted at the age of 37 in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1943 and served in the Pacific during World War II . She was one of the 400,000 American women who served during the World War II. She rose to the rank of sergeant and earned two bronze stars, according to USA Today. After the war Coffey stayed in Japan for 13 years, working as an Army civilian in Okinawa before she moved back to Texas. Coffey worked in a procurement office at an air force base in San Antonio and retired in 1971. Last summer Coffey was able to take an Honor flight to Washington, D.C. and visit the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, according to the San Antonio Express News. Coffey said she wanted to visit the nation's capital to see things 'that were not there before'. 'It's been a long time since I've been in Washington,' she said. 'But I would like to go to see the things that are there.' Coffey (pictured in 2014) looks at a picture of her taken in Okinawa. After the war Coffey stayed in Japan for 13 years and worked as an Army civilian . Honor flights are organized by non-profit organizations to help bring US military veterans for a free trip to visit memorials commemorating the wars they fought in. While in the capital Coffey also sat down with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Obama gave Coffey one of his presidential command coins, saying 'I only give that to my good friends.' After he left Biden told the veteran he was reminded of 'every time I had a good-looking date.' 'There's be some better looking guy coming along,' he said. 'Trying to take her.' Coffey's friend Queta Marquez, a veterans service officer, memorialized her best. 'She was truly a pioneer,' Marquez said. 'Full of life and spunk.' Coffey will be laid to rest with her family in Indiana.
Lucy Coffle died in her sleep in San Antonio on Thursday . She was the second oldest veteran in the country . Coffle enlisted at the age of 37 in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1943 . She served in the Pacific and then worked as an Army civilian in Japan for 13 years after the war ended . Coffle rose to the rank of sergeant and earned two bronze stars .