Patricia Warner of Lincoln receives a Congressional Gold Medal for her OSS service during WWII. (Chris Fama/WBZ NewsRadio)
LINCOLN, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Patricia Warner worked as a spy during World War II for the Office of Strategic Services, the organization that later became the CIA.
On Tuesday, just three days after her 98th birthday, the Lincoln resident received a Congressional Gold Medal for her service.
"Thank you so much for thanking me," Warner told those gathered.
Warner worked to help allied pilots safely exit occupied territory and infiltrated the highest levels of the opposition—all as she pretended to be a young American student in Europe.
During her medal ceremony, she repeatedly eschewed any notion she was brave.
"Somehow I was in on all that, but never in any danger myself," she said. "I don't want to take any credit for it."
Warner had a code name during the war, but apologized for not remembering what it was.
She did, however, recall one of her experiences as a spy.
"We were having a picnic with some of my spy friends by the walls of Ávila, which is about 50 miles outside of Madrid, and I woke up and felt a terrible pain in my hand, and it turned out I was bitten by a black widow spider," she said.
To which her son quipped, "Perhaps your code name was black widow!"
"I guess they called me worse things, because I don't know what they were!" she replied.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chris Fama (@CFamaWBZ) reports