A celebration of life ceremony for beloved retired Rosie the Riveter park ranger Betty Reid Soskin will be held at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts in Oakland on March 1 .

The free event will begin at 2 p.m and will be hosted by Richmond’s Rosie the Riveter Trust. Attendees are asked to reserve entry tickets.

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Reid Soskin, who retired as the nation’s oldest park ranger, died peacefully at at age 104 at her home in Richmond on Dec. 21, surrounded by her family.

During World War II, Reid Soskin worked as a file clerk for the U.S. Air Force and, in 1945, she and her then-husband, Mel Reid, founded Reid’s Records in Berkeley, a small black-owned business that specialized in Gospel music. Reid Soskin later became a civil rights songwriter in the 1960s.

If you go

What: Betty Reid Soskin celebration of life

When: Sun., March 1, 2026, 2 p.m.

Where: Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, 10 10th St., Oakland.

Tickets: The event is free but tickets are required.

She was most well-known for joining the national park service at age 85, when she joined Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park to tell visitors the stories of marginalized World War II workers. She was integral in the park’s programming development, for which she received a presidential coin from President Barack Obama in 2015.

In celebration of her 100th birthday in 2021, the West Contra Costa Unified School District changed the name of Juan Crespí Middle School in El Sobrante to Betty Reid Soskin Middle School. (The Betty Reid school community, where she celebrated her 104th birthday last year, shed tears Wednesday night as the board voted to move them to Pinole Middle School as part of a round of budget cuts.)

According to the event website, recordings will be played of Soskin’s original songs from her music career as well as “tributes from many people whose lives Betty affected.”

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