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Betty Reid Soskin, celebrated for her work as a park ranger with the National Park Service, embarked on this chapter of her life at the age of 85 and continued until her retirement at 100 in 2022.
RICHMOND, California — The nation mourns the loss of Betty Reid Soskin, once the oldest active park ranger in the United States, who has passed away at the age of 104.
Soskin began her remarkable tenure with the National Park Service at 85, serving diligently until she retired at the impressive age of 100, as confirmed by her son, Bob Reid.
A statement on her Facebook page beautifully encapsulated her diverse life, describing her as “a mother, daughter, musician, author, political activist, wife, record store owner, songwriter, painter, grandmother, great-grandmother, prolific blogger, and more.”
According to the post, Soskin passed away peacefully at her home on Sunday.
While working as a park ranger, she led tours at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California. She worked for the U.S. Air Force in 1942 but quit after learning that “she was employed only because her superiors believed she was white,” according to a Park Service biography.
Soskin was born Betty Charbonnet in Detroit in 1921 but recalled surviving the devastating Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 while living with her Creole family in New Orleans, according to the Park Service biography.
Her family then moved to Oakland, California, and Soskin remained in the San Francisco Bay Area, where in 1945 she and her first husband founded one of the first Black-owned record stores in the area, the biography said.
She also was a civil rights activist and took part in meetings to develop a general management plan for the Home Front park. She has received several honors.
She was named California Woman of the Year in 1995.
In 2015, Soskin received a presidential coin from President Barack Obama after she lit the National Christmas tree at the White House.
In June 2016, she was awakened in her home by a robber who punched her repeatedly in the face, dragged her out of her bedroom and beat her before making off with the coin and other items. Soskin, then 94, recovered and returned to work just weeks after the attack. The coin was replaced.
Soskin also was honored with entry into the Congressional Record. Glamour Magazine named her woman of the year in 2018.
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