At 100, The National Park Service's Oldest Active Ranger Is Still Going Strong

Betty Soskin has accomplished a lot over the course of her life.

She's been a published author, a songwriter-activist during the civil rights movement and a businesswoman and now serves with the National Park Service — holding the title as the country's oldest ranger.

Now Soskin can add another milestone to her story: turning 100.

Soskin was born in Detroit on Sept. 22, 1921. She currently is a ranger at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif.

Growing up in a family with Cajun-Creole roots, Soskin and her relatives migrated to the West Coast, eventually settling down in Oakland, Calif., after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 damaged New Orleans, according to the National Park Service.

She had a love-hate relationship with Rosie the Riveter

Soskin's career with the National Park Service began in 2000 after she attended a presentation on a plan to create the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park.

At the time, Judy Hart, the park's founding superintendent, recalls being surprised to hear Soskin proclaim "a love-hate relationship with Rosie," the park service wrote in an article.

Soskin said she never saw herself as a "Rosie the Riveter."

"That really is a white woman's story," Soskin said in a 2014 NPR interview.

Soskin told the National Park Service that she knew firsthand the stories of women who worked in wartime industry, including their experiences battling racism, segregation and discrimination.

Read the rest of the article from NPR here.