Betty Reid Soskin, Oldest Park Ranger, Dies At 104

Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest National Park Ranger, died on Sunday at age 104. 

According to KQED, Betty Reid Soskin was born Betty Charbonnet in Detroit on Sept. 22, 1921. Soskin spent her early life with her Creole family in New Orleans before they were displaced during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. As a result, Soskin’s family moved to the Bay Area, where Soskin spent much of her life.

Inspired by the image of Rosie the Riveter, Soskin wanted to do her part in helping with the war effort during World War II. According to The New York Times, she initially applied for work at the boilermakers’ union to help with shipbuilding, but as the union was segregated, she was placed in the auxiliary wing with other Black women. She worked as a file clerk with the union before eventually resigning. 

“I never had a sense of being anyone other than pushing papers,” Soskin told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2007. “I wasn’t even always sure who the enemy was.”

Postwar, Betty Reid Soskin founded Reid’s Records in Berkeley with her first husband, Mel Reid, in 1945. It was among the first Black-owned record stores in the Bay Area, and for 75 years, it stood as a cultural hub for South Berkeley’s Black community. Reid’s Records was an early showcase of Betty Reid Soskin’s activism and commitment to championing marginalized voices.

In 2000, she found herself assisting with the launch of the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, while working as an aide to Dion Aroner, a California assemblywoman. Her experiences during WWII were pivotal to the park’s creation. “I was the only person of color in the room,” Soskin told Newsweek. “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.” 

Initially signing on as a consultant to the park in 2003, she became a park ranger in 2007 at age 85. During her time in the park service, Betty Reid would lead guided bus tours, sharing the history of the park’s various sites. She was best known for her storytelling abilities. Her talks at the park’s theater drew large audiences, where she would tell stories about the discrimination faced by Black and Asian communities during WWII. 

“What gets remembered is a function of who’s in the room doing the remembering,” Soskin would often say during her talks.

“Because of Betty, we made sure we had African American scholars review our films and exhibits,” Tom Leatherman, the park’s superintendent, told Glamour in 2018. “We also made sure we were looking out for other, often forgotten stories — Japanese American, Latino American, American Indian, and L.G.B.T.Q. narratives — that were equally important.”

In 2015, she introduced President Barack Obama during the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, where she received a commemorative presidential coin. During the tree lighting, she carried a photo of her great-grandmother, Leontine Breaux Allen, who was born into slavery.

“Here I was with my great-grandmother in my breast pocket and with the first African American president of the United States,” Soskin told The New Orleans Times-Picayune. “It was sheer poetry. What could be more American than that?”

On her 100th birthday, Betty Reid Soskin retired from the National Park Service. That same day, the West Contra Costa Unified School District renamed El Sobrante’s Juan Crespi Middle School to Betty Reid Soskin Middle School. “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.”

Betty Reid Soskin lived a long life in service to others. She championed the marginalized and used the gift of storytelling to ensure the historical contributions of Black, brown, and non-white women were not forgotten. She set an example worth following and didn’t let age stop her from making an impact on her community. 

Soskin is survived by her son, her daughters, Diara Melitte, Kitty Reid, and Dorian Leon Reid, five grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and three nieces. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family. 

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