Top Photo: Ranger Betty Reid Soskin sits in front of the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park Visitor Education Center. National Parks Service Photo, Luther Bailey 

The National WWII Museum mourns the loss of WWII Home Front worker and dear friend Betty Reid Soskin, who passed away on December 21 at age 104. She was the oldest active park ranger in the United States until her retirement at age 100.

Soskin was born in 1921 in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Louisiana natives with both Creole and Cajun backgrounds. She spent her early childhood years living in New Orleans until 1927, when river flooding devastated Louisiana. Her family resettled in Oakland, California, joining Soskin’s maternal grandfather, who had moved there after World War I.

During World War II, Soskin went to work as a file clerk for the segregated Black auxiliary of the International Boilermakers Union in Richmond, California.

“I was working in a segregated union hall that was in a building that was torn down after the war,” Soskin said in a 2016 interview with The Times-Picayune. “I never saw a ship being launched or a ship being built. I was filling out change-of-address cards for people who were constantly moving. That was what I was doing to save the world for democracy.” 

In 1945, Soskin and her husband founded a small Berkely music store—Reid’s Records—and she became a prominent Bay Area community activist and an advocate for the legacy of women Home Front workers and African Americans during the war.

She was named a Woman of the Year by the California State Legislature in 1995, and in 2005 was named one of the nation’s 10 outstanding women by the National Women’s History Project.

In 2003, while serving as a field representative for a member of the California State Assembly, Soskin became involved in the planning for the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond.  

During her interview with The Times-Picayune, she mentioned that she never connected with the Rosie the Riveter myth. However, by including African American perspectives in the narrative for visitors, she explained, "I'm adding complexity to a story that could have wound up being little more than a bumper sticker." 

Betty Reid Soskin at the Rosie the Riveter Visitor Education Center in Richmond, California. National Parks Service Photo/Luther Bailey

She also became a consultant to the National Park Service and then, at age 85, a ranger. She retired in 2022 as the oldest serving park ranger.

In 2016, Soskin received The National WWII Museum's Silver Service Medallion in recognition of her life of service and leadership. She was featured in the Museum's 2018 Electronic Field Trip about African Americans' wartime experiences, and we are proud to have her oral history in our Digital Collections. Soskin was also a featured speaker at the Museum’s 2012 International Conference on World War II.  

We are grateful for Ms. Soskin's service and friendship, and our thoughts are with her family.