Etty Reid Soskin, a fount of history who was the National Park Service's oldest ranger when she retired a few years ago, has died at the age of 104.
Soskin, whose family confirmed her death on Dec. 21 in a Facebook post, had spent more than a dozen years sharing her stories as a park ranger at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, intent on filling missing chapters of the U.S. narrative that only someone like her could know. They did not share her cause of death.
Soskin became a National Park ranger in her mid-80s, schooling visitors on Black women’s contributions to the WWII effort in the face of discrimination.
Born in Detroit in 1921, Soskin was the great-granddaughter of a former Louisiana slave, according to “No Time to Waste: The Urgent Message of Betty Reid Soskin,” a documentary about her life produced in association with the Rosie the Riveter Trust.
