This story was updated to correct information about the musical portion of the service and Betty Reid Soskin’s Louisiana tie.
Friends, family and Bay Area dignitaries packed Oakland’s Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium Sunday to celebrate the life and legacy of Betty Reid Soskin, the eloquent and fierce East Bay resident who was nationally recognized for her insistence that Richmond’s Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park tell a more inclusive narrative about the experiences of Black shipyard workers.
Soskin died on Dec. 21, 2025 at age 104. Her life spanned many pivotal moments of the last century, from the Great Migration to World War II, when Soskin worked as a file clerk for Boilermakers Union, a segregated union auxiliary representing Black shipyard workers. After leaving the Richmond shipyards, Soskin and her first husband, Mel Reid, opened Reid’s Records in Berkeley in 1945, one of the first Black-owned record stores in California and eventually its the largest retailer of gospel music. In 1985, Soskin made headlines when she refused to sell LL Cool J’s “Bigger and Deffer” because of its violent lyrics.
Then, at 85, after raising four children and outliving two husbands, Soskin reinvented herself yet again, becoming a National Park Service ranger. She used her personal experience to tell a different version of World War II history, one that didn’t sugarcoat the discrimination that Black workers experienced during the war effort. She did so with great charisma, humor and vivid storytelling that quickly caught the public’s attention and made visitors fall in love with her.
“Betty leaves behind a powerful legacy for all of us and certainly within the National Park Service,” said Kelly English, the park’s former manager of interpretation, education and outreach, at Sunday’s memorial. “Her thoughtful, introspective musings about the Civil Rights movement and the women’s movement and how they intersected are some of the unique moments that I will always treasure…Thanks to Betty we’ve learned that we can hold multiple conflicting truths at the same time.”
An estimated 1,000 people attended her celebration of life, including her children and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee paid her respects as did Berkeley Councilmember Igor Tregub, who read a proclamation. Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez did not attend, but honored Soskin at the city’s Black History Month event held Saturday at Richmond Memorial Auditorium.
Sunday’s memorial was filled with music, Soskin’s original songs were played and her son Bob Reid, also a musician, and his partner Judi Jaeger performed as well. Many of the songs were featured in a 2024 musical about Soskin’s life, “Sign My Name to Freedom,” and will be featured in a forthcoming documentary by local filmmaker Bryan Gibel.
“Until 1990, my mother was defined by the men in her life — her father and her first and second husbands,” Bob Reid told the crowd. “But after they all died, for the first time, she was not defined by any of them. And the name that she loved hearing most was ‘Miss Betty.’ There was so much love in that name.”
At the memorial, Lee read “When Great Trees Fall,” a poem by Maya Angelou, and recalled how Soskin taught her about music and encouraged her to dream big while Lee was a student at Mills College. “I was mesmerized by this woman,” Lee said. “She took the time with me to encourage me to dream big but also to help others to deal with the challenges that Black women and other women of color and marginalized communities face.”
In 2005, Soskin was asked to help uncover untold stories of African Americans on the WWII home front, which soon led to a permanent job with the National Park Service. In talks with visitors, Soskin addressed segregation, housing discrimination, and how Black workers were often excluded from the prosperity white workers accessed, complicating the myth of American patriotism during the war.
In 2013, during a federal shutdown, Soskin began speaking to national media, appearing on shows such as “Arsenio Hall” and “60 Minutes,” and became known as “the oldest ranger in the NPS system.” The exposure transformed her from a Bay Area figure to a globally recognized symbol, with her iconic park-issued Stetson hat and forest green uniform. Soskin was then in her 90s, but her star only kept rising. In 2015, Soskin introduced President Barack Obama at a national tree-lighting ceremony at the White House, and he gave her a presidential coin for her service.
“My mother had an ability to introduce difficult topics in a way that people were able to hear them,” said Bob Reid. “And because she was an older person she wasn’t as threatening as a younger person might be. She was so energetic, she was like a young person in an old person’s body, and I think that was inspiring for people that at her age she could be vital. She inspired people to ask more of their lives.”
Undeterred by her age, Soskin continued traveling the country, giving talks and not always about history. During one event, Soskin recounted a 2016 incident in her Richmond home, when she was attacked by an intruder in pajama pants who stole her coin. Despite her terror, Soskin managed to defend herself by grabbing the man’s testicles, then reaching for an iron and switching it to the highest setting. She called the incident “a gift” that taught her that she was still resilient and could be independent, despite her age.
Soskin suffered a stroke in 2019 but kept working until 2022 when she officially retired from the National Park Service.
Asked her thoughts on what kept her going, Soskin was philosophical.
“History is what happens to us every day,” she said. “It’s the record of what we have done, what has been done to us and how we have responded.”
Her celebration of life ended with a fitting tribute to her upbringing in Louisiana: A brass band led a traditional New Orleans-style Second Line, weaving through the auditorium aisles and leading the mourners out to the parking lot so they could bid farewell to their beloved with joy.
