The "pride of Richmond” Betty Reid Soskin, who reigned as the nation’s oldest National Park ranger past the age of 100, died Sunday morning, leaving an incomparable legacy on the East Bay and the National Park system.
We’ve many times admired the legacy of the "oldest US National Park ranger” Betty Reid Soskin, who retired in 2022, though was already 100 years old at that point. Soskin was pivotal in the creation of the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond that opened in the year 2000, and her namesake remains on the Betty Reid Soskin Middle School in El Sobrante.
But the Bay Area lost its famed park ranger over the weekend, as the Chronicle reports that Betty Reid Soskin died on Sunday at her home in Richmond. 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,” Soskin’s family announced in a Sunday Facebook post. “In lieu of flowers we suggest two ways that you can express your love and respect for Betty. You might send donations to Betty Reid Soskin Middle School (link to follow) and to support the finishing of her film, "Sign My Name To Freedom."
Betty Reid Soskin, the nation’s oldest National Park Service, has died. Soskin devoted her life to preserving Black history, women’s stories and overlooked voices in the Bay Area and beyond. https://t.co/xvgORbRsc3
— KQED (@KQED) December 22, 2025
Soskin’s primary legacy will be her consultancy into curating that Rosie the Riveter museum in Richmond that opened in 2000, seeing to it that the stories of women and people of color made it into the narrative. “Being a primary source in the sharing of that history — my history — and giving shape to a new national park has been exciting and fulfilling,” Soskin said at the time. “It has proven to bring meaning to my final years.”
The American story is told more completely, our history is known more fully, and our understanding of the experiences of Black women is richer because of Betty Reid Soskin. A mother, businesswoman, federal worker — and the nation’s oldest National Park Ranger when she retired at… pic.twitter.com/54BouvN0aF
— The Obama Foundation (@ObamaFoundation) December 22, 2025
She was born Betty Charbonnet in Detroit on September 22, 1921, though her family moved to Oakland when she was six years old. She and her first husband Mel Reid were among the first Black families to move to Walnut Creek, which was not particularly well-received at the time. Soskin’s activism working to support outlaw Black Panthers activists Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver did not help matters, though she raised four children there.
But the Betty Reid Soskin we most remember got her start in 1942, when women were drafted into the Bay Area WWII effort a la “Rosie the Riveter.” Soskin was part of the boilermakers’ union, which helped in the production of ships from the Richmond factory facility. But Soskin was relegated to just sorting index cards in her duties with the union, which was was racially segregated at the time.
A remarkable life. A remarkable woman.
— Optimistic Prime (@HellaHiking) December 21, 2025
Betty Reid Soskin became a National Park Ranger at the age of 85.
In this clip, she discusses how music gave her a voice. pic.twitter.com/No8kWw9FWa
In 1945, she and Reid would open Reid’s Records, one of Berkeley's first Black-owned record stores, featuring gospel, jazz, and R&B music. That’s when Soskin got more politically involved with the City of Berkeley, helping spearhead a cleanup of the shop’s Sacramento Street location that has become something of an outdoor drug den.
She would go on to work asa staffer for Berkeley City Council Member Don Jelinek in the 1980s and 90s, and for California Assembly Member Dion Aroner in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That’s where she was drafted to be on the team that created the curriculum for the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park.
Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest park ranger in the U.S. when she retired in 2022 at age 100, and who cemented the Black wartime experience into history @RosieRiveterNPS, has passed away. She was 104.
— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) December 22, 2025
May her long and beautiful life inspire you each day.
Rest in power, Betty. https://t.co/RYBikazP1Z
“I was the only person of color in the room,” Soskin told Newsweek in a 2020 interview. “And as I began to introduce my part of the work, it was very clear that many of the stories of Richmond during the war were not being told.”
Soskin is survived by her son Robert, daughters Diara Melitte Kitty Reid and Dorian Leon Reid, plus five grandchildren, three nieces, and one great-grandchild.
Related: 100-Year-Old National Park Ranger Betty Reid Soskin Has Retired [SFist]
Image: RICHMOND, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 15: Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest full-time National Park Service ranger in the United States, looks on during a news conference announcing her retirement at the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park on April 15, 2022 in Richmond, California. Betty Reid Soskin retired on March 31 after a decade and a half of serving as a National Park Ranger at the Rosie the Riveter/World War ll Home Front National Park where she shared her personal experience with other women who worked on the World War II home front. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
