Betty Reid Soskin, the U.S.'s oldest park ranger, died at the age of 104. She first became a park ranger at 85 and worked at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California. During World War II, Soskin worked as a file clerk in a segregated union hall in the San Francisco Bay Area. And in the 1960s, Soskin held fundraisers to support the Black Panthers. In a 2015 interview with the Interior Department, Soskin said, “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.”
Betty Reid Soskin, the Oldest U.S. Park Ranger, Dies at 104
HeadlineDec 24, 2025
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