Jan Daley hits the right note! 78-year-old singer's song on the chart with Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Three years ago on Memorial Day, Eyewitness News told the story of a singer who performed in Bob Hope's USO shows in Vietnam.

The military meant a lot to her then and it still does now.

Eyewitness News caught up with that singer, Jan Daley. She never got to meet her father, who served the U.S. in World War II, but their lives intertwined in a way that still makes her emotional.

"And I was always thinking, is he looking down and being proud?" Daley said.

Daley lost her father 78 years ago. He died overseas when she was 2-months-old. He was an Air Force pilot shot down trying to pick up POWs right after World War II.

She lost him before he made it home to meet her, but she found some of his memories that connect them in a special way.

One old photo shows her military dad standing near Bob Hope.

"I just went, 'Oh my goodness, there he is!'" Daley said.

Not knowing that photo ever existed, she'd find herself right next to Hope during her days performing for our troops.

Daley said she always hoped her father could somehow see what was happening in her life. She just never could have imagined what would be happening now, at 78.

Her original single, "The Way Of A Woman," is a bonafide hit.

The song, about someone who's cheating, is charting. It hit number one on MediaBase's independent artist list.

And she's in good company elsewhere as well. The song is also on the adult contemporary chart.

"And at one point, I was 25, Taylor Swift was 24 and Lady Gaga was 26. So I am over the moon," she said. "And I'm sure that all the big companies like Sony and BMI, all those people, are going,'Who the heck is Jan Daley?'"

She's someone headed to Washington next month to be inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame for her talent in that arena.

"This is a special time for me, I think, and just to have that honor and to know that I'm riding the charts is just amazing," Daley said.

"To women, especially who gave up their careers like I did to stay home and be a mother, that you can get out there again, that it's never too late, you're never too old, or young, to fulfill those dreams," she added.

Daley has a website (jandaley.com), a YouTube channel (Jan Daley Music) and a lot of drive to keep singing and keep creating.