Betty Reid Soskin is perhaps most famous for being a National Park Service ranger working until the age of 100 at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park, which she had helped to establish. She received a Presidential Medal from President Barack Obama for her inspiring work in social justice and storytelling.
Earlier in her life, Soskin had broken the color barrier by moving her family into a white neighborhood in California. The racism they suffered, together with the civil rights struggles at the time, led Soskin to compose and record songs. Those songs have only recently been brought to light by filmmaker Bryan Gibel, who is making a documentary of her fascinating life.
Soskin began to blog about her civil rights experiences in 2003. This later became a book, Sign My Name to Freedom, in 2018. There is also a musical of the same name based on her music and her memoir, which ran earlier this year in San Francisco.
The documentary of her life is in production and it is hoped that it will be ready for screening before Betty turns 104.
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