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She survived the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, opened a person of the Bay Area’s initially Black-owned record merchants in Oakland in 1945 and was named the California Lady of the 12 months award in 1995.
President Barack Obama gave her a silver coin with the Presidential seal when he invited her to a countrywide Xmas tree lighting ceremony.
But on Saturday, it was the general public who celebrated Betty Reid Soskin, 100, the nation’s oldest energetic park ranger. She had served additional than 15 many years at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII House Entrance National Historic Park in Richmond just before retiring previous thirty day period.
Organizers of the ceremony were being left scrambling to uncover seats for hundreds of nicely wishers who gathered at the Craneway Pavilion subsequent doorway to the park’s Customer Training Heart to honor the Bay Area’s beloved ranger.
Retired Countrywide Park Assistance deputy regional director Martha Lee shared reminiscences of employing Reid Soskin, recalling how she was at first hesitant to dress in the ranger’s uniform.
That did not final long.
Reid Soskin led tours at the park and museum honoring girls who labored in factories for the duration of wartime and shared her individual practical experience as a Black woman all through the conflict. She worked for the U.S. Air Drive in 1942 but stop right after understanding that “she was utilized only due to the fact her superiors considered she was white,” in accordance to a Park Company biography.
When she was carried out talking, Lee requested all those who knew Reid Soskin, which includes her family members, to stand. Then she questioned her NPS function colleagues to stand, her good friends at the Rosie the Riveter believe in and eventually, anybody who had “been encouraged in any way by Betty’s everyday living experience and stories.”
No one remained seated.
Director of the Nationwide Park Services Chuck Sams introduced Reid Soskin with a single of the NPS’s iconic, arrow-head shaped plaques, signed by dozens of her former colleagues. She acknowledged it graciously, holding it close to her chest with both fingers just before thanking absolutely everyone for their help and for “putting the wind underneath my wings.”
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