Betty Reid Soskin, the nation's oldest park ranger, is still discovering herself at 104

"Betty Reid Soskin, who retired four years ago as the country's oldest national park ranger, said her life began at 50. But even at 104 she is still redefining who she is day by day. At a 104th birthday celebration held Monday at the eponymous middle school in El Sobrante, Reid Soskin was greeted by hundreds of students and staff who made posters, wrote cards and sang her happy birthday several times."

"Reid Soskin is perhaps most famous for her 15 years of national park service, where she told visitors the stories of unsung marginalized World War II workers at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond. It earned her a presidential coin from President Barack Obama. But her story, and the glass ceilings she broke, started long before."

Betty Reid Soskin celebrated her 104th birthday surrounded by students and staff at a middle school in El Sobrante. She retired four years earlier as the nation’s oldest national park ranger after 15 years at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park. She told visitors the stories of marginalized World War II workers and received a presidential coin from President Barack Obama. During World War II she worked as a file clerk for an all-Black union auxiliary. She helped desegregate Walnut Creek, opened Reid Records in 1945, wrote songs during the Civil Rights movement, delivered cash for the Black Panthers, and dated Jackie Robinson.

Read at richmondside.org