Bay Area Legends: Celebrating the Trailblazing Life of the Nation’s Oldest Park Ranger Betty Reid Soskin

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Betty Reid Soskin was a civil rights pioneer, musician, and the nation’s oldest park ranger when, at the age of 100, she retired from Richmond’s Rosie the Riveter museum where she was dedicated to keeping experiences of Black Americans and women in the forefront of the historical narrative. She worked in the segregated homefront during World War II, was among the first Black families to integrate Walnut Creek, and she ran one of the first Black-owned record stores in the Bay Area. She died in December at 104 years old and as part of our Bay Area Legends series, we’ll listen back to Forum’s interviews with Soskin over the years and talk with those who loved her and worked with her. Guests: Bob Reid, musician activist and Betty Reid Soskin's son Kelli English, program manager, National Park Service, was Betty Reid Soskin's supervisor at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for KQED Podcasts comes from Landmark College, offering executive function support
0:06.3	and social coaching for neurodivergent individuals at the Bay Area Success Center. Learn more at
0:12.6	landmark.edu slash success center. Support for KQED podcasts comes from Stanford Continuing Studies.
0:21.6	This spring, join Emmanuel Luli for Light Marble and Miracle, Italian art from Joto to Konova.
0:28.2	Explore centuries of Italian art from medieval innovation to Renaissance masters.
0:33.5	Continuing Studies.standford.edu.edu.
0:37.6	Well, Continuing Studies.standford.edu. From KQED.
0:41.0	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. I don't have too many journalistic regrets, but one of them is that I never got a chance to interview Betty Reed Soskin.
0:51.6	Soskin became nationally famous as a park ranger at the Rosie the Riveter
0:56.2	Museum in Richmond, but I first encountered her blog. Yes, she was a prolific blogger beginning in 2003.
1:05.7	I actually just learned that she went to Al Gore at Al Gore Internet Conference in Silicon Valley,
1:12.6	which is one way that she got tipped off to the internet.
1:18.7	This was a person who adapted to her times, but also shaped them.
1:25.1	She died late last year and recently had a memorial at the theater at the Kaiser Auditorium, and we wanted to recognize her this morning here on
1:28.4	Forum 2 as a Bay Area legend. We're joined by her son, Bob Reed, musician and an activist. Thank you so
1:36.9	much, Bob. Great to be here. We are also joined by Kelly English, a program manager at the
1:42.8	National Park Service. She was Betty Reed
1:45.2	Soskin supervisor there at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park.
1:51.8	Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having us. Bob, just before we get into hearing your
1:57.3	mother's voice, because she came on forum several times over the years, What was she like? What would you say if she were sitting here in this chair? What would we think about
2:07.6	Betty Reid-Soss? My mother would have been different people at different times in her life.
2:14.1	She changed every decade, you know, just kind of wiped her slate clean and reinvented herself.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.