Nation’s oldest park ranger, 98, recovering from stroke, son says
RICHMOND >> Betty Reid Soskin, the nation’s oldest park ranger known for her sold-out talks at the Rosie the Riveter Visitor Center, is recovering from a stroke, her son wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
“A while ago, while working at the Rosie the Riveter Visitor Center, Betty was showing evidence of suffering a stroke. She was taken to the hospital where that concern was confirmed,” Soskin’s son, Bob Reid, wrote in a Facebook post the day after Soskin’s 98th birthday.
“She has been in acute rehabilitation for the past week and it has taken much of our time and attention to address her needs and address the events of our own lives,” Reid wrote.
Soskin is known for her talks on race and social change at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park, where she talks about her own experience as a young black woman working at a segregated union hall in Richmond.
Soskin, the nation’s oldest park ranger, has received several accolades, including a presidential coin from President Barack Obama after she introduced him at the national Christmas tree lighting in 2015.
Soskin took a two-week break from work in 2016 after she was brutally attacked by an intruder at her home in Richmond.
In addition to stealing Soskin’s iPhone, iPad, laptop and jewelry, the intruder also took her presidential coin, which was later replaced by then-Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.
Soskin’s relatives “are preparing a way for people to assist Betty in her recovery,” Reid wrote in the Facebook post.