By Tiffany Williams –
Richmond, California — Betty Reid Soskin, the nation’s oldest National Park Service ranger and a widely respected chronicler of Black American history on the World War II home front, died in December at her home in Richmond, according to her family. She was 104.
“This morning on the Winter Solstice, our mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, Betty Reid Soskin, passed away peacefully at her home in Richmond, CA at 104 years old. She was attended by family. She led a fully packed life and was ready to leave,” her family wrote.
Soskin was a trailblazing public historian whose work reshaped how the National Park Service told the story of World War II, particularly the experiences of African Americans whose contributions had long been overlooked. She became the oldest active park ranger in the United States and a symbol of endurance, memory, and public service.
Born in 1921, Soskin grew up in a Cajun-Creole, African American family that settled in Oakland, California, after the “Great Flood” devastated New Orleans in 1927. Her parents joined her maternal grandfather, George Allen, who had moved west following World War I. The family’s relocation followed a broader migration of Black railroad workers who, after working as sleeping car porters, waiters, and chefs, settled at the western ends of rail routes in search of opportunity and relief from the racial hostility of the South.
She graduated from Castlemont High School in Oakland during the era of the World’s Fair at Treasure Island and retained vivid memories of the Bay Area before its modern transformation, recalling ferry boats crossing San Francisco Bay before the bridges were built and the Oakland International Airport as little more than two small hangars. Her recollections also included major historical moments, such as Amelia Earhart’s departure and disappearance and the Port Chicago ammunition ship explosion on July 17, 1944.
During World War II, Soskin worked as a file clerk in the segregated Union hall of Boilermaker’s A-36. In 1945, she and her husband, Mel Reid, founded Reid’s Records, one of the first Black-owned music stores in the country. The store became a cultural institution and remained in operation until 2019. Beyond music and business, Soskin built a long career in public service, working as staff to a Berkeley city council member and later serving as a field representative for California legislators Dion Aroner and Loni Hancock.
Her association with the National Park Service began in the early 2000s, when she participated in planning meetings with the City of Richmond and the NPS to help shape the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park. Through a grant funded by PG&E, Soskin worked to uncover untold stories of African Americans on the WWII home front. That work led to a temporary position with the Park Service when she was 84 years old.
By 2007, she became a permanent NPS employee, and in 2011 she officially joined the ranks of the Park Service as a ranger. She led public programs at the Rosie the Riveter museum, sharing both historical research and her own lived experiences. Her work brought national attention during the 2013 federal government shutdown, when her status as the oldest park ranger drew widespread media coverage. She used the spotlight to emphasize the importance of preserving and telling the stories of ordinary Americans whose labor supported the war effort.
In 2015, Soskin was selected to participate in the national tree-lighting ceremony at the White House, where she introduced President Barack Obama during the PBS broadcast.
After suffering a stroke in the fall of 2019, Soskin spent months in physical therapy. She returned to work in 2020 before retiring from the National Park Service in 2022. Even in retirement, her influence endured through her public talks, recorded histories, and the generations of visitors she educated.
On the morning of December 21, 2025, Betty Reid Soskin died peacefully at her home in Richmond at the age of 104, closing a life defined by resilience, public service, and a commitment to ensuring that history included the voices too often left out.