Betty Reid Soskin began her career as a park ranger at the age of 85, becoming the country’s oldest active park ranger. At 100, she proudly retired, and now, after years of working to preserve Black history, Soskin died on Dec. 21 at 104 years old.
Her family announced the news in a statement on Facebook: “On the Winter Solstice, our mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, Betty Reid Soskin, passed away peacefully at her home in Richmond, CA at 104 years old. She was attended by family. She led a fully packed life and was ready to leave. We understand the public nature of Betty’s life; however, we ask that you please respect the family’s privacy at this time. There will be a public memorial at a time and place to be announced.”
In 1942, Soskin was part of a generation of women who joined the war. However, as a Black woman, she experienced a variety of discrimination while working as a file clerk for the U.S. Air Force, where she was hired under the assumption that she was white, and worked in a segregated unit of the boilermakers’ union, which supplied much of the shipbuilding work force in the port of Richmond. However, she worked sorting index cards in the city’s union hall, which further revealed the depth of the systematic discrimination.
“I was the only person of color in the room,” Ms. Soskin told Newsweek in 2020. “And as I began to introduce my part of the work, it was very clear that many of the stories of Richmond during the war were not being told.”
In 2000, years after her service, she helped California Assemblywoman Dion Aroner plan the launch of the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond. In 2003, she became a consultant to the National Park, and by 2007, she kick-started her career as a park ranger at 85.
Giving narrated bus tours, Soskin shared the history of the park while also sharing her personal experiences as an African American worker during World War II. While she made history as the oldest active park ranger, it was her storytelling that captivated guests and drew large crowds.
So much so that in 2009, she received a congressional invite to President Barack Obama’s inauguration, who later gave her a presidential coin during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in 2015.
“What gets remembered is a function of who’s in the room doing the remembering,” Soskin often said, per KQED.
“When I’m on the streets or on an escalator or elevator, I am making every little girl of color aware of a career choice she may not have known she had,” she added in a 2015 interview with the Department of the Interior, as reported by the New York Times. “The pride is evident in their eyes.”
Beyond her trailblazing work in the national parks, in 1945, Soskin and her first husband, Mel Reid, founded Reid’s Records, one of the Bay Area’s first Black-owned record stores which served a safe space for the Black community for nearly 75 years. Between being honored as California Woman of the Year in 1995 and having a West Contra Costa Unified School District middle school named after her, Soskin lived a full life, which she acknowledged on her 100th birthday.
“I don’t know what one might do to justify a long life,” she said during the renaming ceremony. “I think that you have pretty much got it made.”
Soskin’s life was documented in her memoir, “Sign My Name to Freedom,” which later inspired not only a stage play but also a documentary.
Now, as her family prepares to honor her legacy, they are asking the public to support the finishing of the documentary directed by Bryan Gibel, and/or donate to her eponymous middle school.
“In lieu of flowers we suggest two ways that you can express your love and respect for Betty. You might send donations to Betty Reid Soskin Middle School (link to follow) and to support the finishing of her film, “Sign My Name To Freedom” at https://signmynametofreedom.allyrafundraising.com”
