Betty Reid Soskin

At an age where most people choose to enjoy retirement, Betty Reid Soskin joined the National Park Service at the age of 85. Today, she is the oldest full-time ranger in the Service, working at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California. Throughout her lifetime, she has seen many changes: The great-granddaughter of a slave, eventually freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, Soskin served as a file clerk at a Jim Crow segregated union auxiliary at the age of 20. A longtime activist, she later became a well-known songwriter in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, she rarely appears in public without her uniform, hoping to inspire girls to follow in her footsteps.