She survived the Nice Mississippi Flood of 1927, opened one of many Bay Space’s first Black-owned file shops in Oakland in 1945 and was named the California Lady of the Yr award in 1995.
President Barack Obama gave her a silver coin with the Presidential seal when he invited her to a nationwide Christmas tree lighting ceremony.
However on Saturday, it was the general public who celebrated Betty Reid Soskin, 100, the nation’s oldest lively park ranger. She had served greater than 15 years on the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Dwelling Entrance Nationwide Historic Park in Richmond earlier than retiring final month.
Organizers of the ceremony have been left scrambling to search out seats for a whole bunch of nicely wishers who gathered on the Craneway Pavilion subsequent door to the park’s Customer Training Heart to honor the Bay Space’s beloved ranger.
Retired Nationwide Park Service deputy regional director Martha Lee shared reminiscences of hiring Reid Soskin, recalling how she was initially reluctant to put on the ranger’s uniform.
That didn’t final lengthy.
Reid Soskin led excursions on the park and museum honoring girls who labored in factories throughout wartime and shared her personal expertise as a Black girl throughout the battle. She labored for the U.S. Air Drive in 1942 however give up after studying that “she was employed solely as a result of her superiors believed she was white,” in keeping with a Park Service biography.
When she was accomplished talking, Lee requested those that knew Reid Soskin, together with her household, to face. Then she requested her NPS work colleagues to face, her mates on the Rosie the Riveter belief and eventually, anybody who had “been impressed in any approach by Betty’s life expertise and tales.”
Nobody remained seated.
Director of the Nationwide Park Service Chuck Sams introduced Reid Soskin with one of many NPS’s iconic, arrow-head formed plaques, signed by dozens of her former colleagues. She accepted it graciously, holding it near her chest with each fingers earlier than thanking everybody for his or her help and for “placing the wind underneath my wings.”
