Betty Reid Soskin

Betty Charbonnet Reid Soskin was the oldest active National Park Service ranger in American history, serving at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, until she was 100 years old. She spent her final years in uniform ensuring that the contributions of Black women to the World War II home front effort were not erased from history — because when she first visited the park, their stories were entirely absent.

Born in Detroit in 1921, and raised in Oakland, California, Soskin lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the civil rights movement, and the election of America's first Black president. During the war, she worked as a file clerk in a segregated union hall — the only work available to her because the well-paying factory jobs were reserved for white women. This experience — of being Rosie the Riveter but being treated as less than — became the story she spent decades telling.

Soskin became a park ranger at 85, leading interpretive programs that centered the experiences of Black women during WWII. Her tours were so popular that the park's attendance increased significantly. She received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Obama and was featured in countless media profiles. She joined the ancestors on December 21, 2025, at 104, having spent her final two decades ensuring that America remembered the whole story — not just the comfortable parts.