As we reflect on Veterans Day, the great sacrifice of our servicemen and women, it is important to note that most veterans continue to serve their country well after leaving the theater of war. Theresa Marie Smith Reilly, of Bayport (albeit a Blue Point resident now), is one of those wartime and everyday heroes. Turning 101 this past September, Reilly is still an active member of her family and often attends family events outside of her neighborhood.

“My mom, even at 101, is still very much with it!” said daughter Melissa, proud of the matriarch of the Reilly clan.

Born in Yonkers, Reilly and her brother were sent to officer training school in the Navy by their mother. Both graduated and entered the service during World War II. Reilly was originally stationed in New Orleans, where she met her husband, also in the Navy. From the South, she was moved to Pearl Harbor, where she was given the task of keeping Japanese prisoners of war safe.

“It was mom’s job to make sure no one put anything poisonous or damaging in their food,” said Melissa.

A trained nurse, Reilly was central to life on the Pearl Harbor base following the attack on Dec. 7, 1940.

Still in Pearl Harbor on V-J Day, Reilly was mum on details about the endless parties she attended, but Melissa suspects her mother “had a ball with all that drinking and dancing!”

In 1957, after Reilly’s husband obtained a job as an English and Latin teacher at the former La Salle Military Academy in Oakdale, the couple moved to Bayport, a stuccoed house on Gerritsen, where they would raise their children.

Originally, Reilly worked as a nurse at Pilgrim State, the famous psychiatric facility, and then in the ‘60s became the nurse at Bayport-Blue Point High School, a post she served until her retirement in 1976.

Reilly, who spoke of fellow woman veteran and generational compatriot, Queen Elizabeth II, who died this year, said that her generation was so “overwhelmingly patriotic” that they all felt compelled to join the armed forces and help the cause.

Now, at an epic 101, Reilly, who has had the brilliant joy of meeting her great-grandchildren, lives a quiet but fulfilling life with her daughter in Blue Point.