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Betty Reid Soskin, the Oldest U.S. Park Ranger, Dies at 104

HeadlineDec 24, 2025

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.”

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