The oldest National Park ranger in America has just celebrated her 100th birthday.
Betty Reid Soskin, 100, is a popular ranger and tour guide at Richmond's Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, with her tours filling up as far as months in advance.
And yesterday (September 22), she celebrated her 100th birthday, ABC News reports.
However, while she might be currently known for her work as a ranger, she didn't actually become one until she was 85 years old.
Soskin worked as a clerk during World War II and also worked in a segregated union hall before going on to become a political and community activist - a role that saw her work for the Black Panthers and Antiwar movements.
As well as her current role as a ranger, Soskin is a great grandmother and can list being a business owner, an accomplished musician, a blogger, and a political aide on her résumé.
"People need heroes," said Soskin, ABC News reports. "And I'm maybe one of those."
"When I became a ranger, I was taking back my own history," she told said in an interview with The New York Times for her 100th birthday.
"Without Betty's influence, we probably would not have told various previously marginalized stories in as much depth," Tom Leatherman, the park superintendent, told the news outlet.
As a result of Betty's work, the park is now telling the stories of Mexican American braceros, the Japanese Americans, the boxcar "Indian Village", which was used to house newly arrived railroad workers coming from New Mexico.
"Betty has an amazing ability to share her own story in a really personal and vulnerable way - not so people know more about her, but so they understand that they too have a story," Leatherman told The New York Times. "We all have a history - and it's just as important as the history we learn in school."
Travel and Leisure reports that Soskin is currently the oldest park ranger in the US, however, she is not the only centenarian involved including a 103-year-old who decided to become a junior ranger after visiting a park in 2019.
Happy birthday, Betty! You're a true American hero!