Women in History - Betty Reid Soskin - Sermon for Week ending March 28, 2020

I am finishing our Women in History series with another great woman that I had never heard of. I was driving back from somewhere a few weeks ago, when I heard her tell her story on NPR’s The Moth Radio Hour, one of my favorite NPR programs, where people tell true stories, without a script or notes, to a live audience. Her story was so amazing, that I had one of those NPR driveway moments, where after I got home, I sat in my car and finished listening.  


The title of the program was Truth and Power: Global stories of Women, and the first storyteller was Betty Reid Soskin, who, at age 97, is the oldest person to tell a story on the Moth stage. When she started speaking, she sounded a little nervous. She began by saying that she was a full-time park ranger at ‘Rosie the Riveter’ National Historic Park in Richmond, California, a job she began at age 85, because she was at a point where she had outlived her sense of future, and so was making life up as she went, one day at a time. In her job as a ranger, she guided tours and trained other rangers in CPR, where she usually played the victim. 3 times a week, she packed the theatre to talk about the Rosies and other women who served the war effort on the home front, weaving in her own experience as a young black woman in a segregated America.


I’m listening to this woman talk about her work, and thinking I am going to learn all about ‘Rosie the Riveter’ National Historic Park, and perhaps about other strong women who had influenced her. But after she mentioned that her children were concerned that she still lived alone, her voiced lost the sound of nervousness, as she said,  “On June 30th, two years ago, I awoke in the night and saw a man looking through my things.” She reached for her cell phone to call the police, but her movement got his attention, and he grabbed the phone and threw it across the room. Within seconds, he leaped across the bed and wrestled her off (She is 5 ft. 3). She screamed as loud as she could. He pinned her arms. Her back was against his chest, and he put his arm over her mouth. She kicked his leg, and they both fell, she onto her back, with him straddling her, and he started to pummel her face with his fists. She realized that her hands were free, and that he was wearing some sort of pajama pants with a drawstring. She said, “And somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered this magical thing, and I reached in, and squeezed as hard as I could, and he tumbled over in a heap.”


She ran into the bathroom and barred the door. She said, “I don’t know how long I sat there, but I suddenly realized that underneath the lavatory, was my electric iron.  I plugged it in and turned it up to linen. I was going to brand him for the police.” After a while, when she was pretty sure he had gone, with the iron still in her hand,  she ran out and pounded on her neighbors’ door, and they called the police, who not only took care of her, but offered her counseling and relocation if she wanted it. 

She ended her story saying, “That night, I think I received a gift that was unintended. I realized that I had been tested, and I had not only survived, but prevailed. And I’m now 97, still living alone.”  

I learned a lot more about Betty. She is an author, composer, singer, political activist, and historian. During WWII, she worked as a file clerk for the Boilermakers union.  A Unitarian Universalist, she was an activist in and songwriter for the Civil Rights Movement. And she was a field representative for two California assembly women, where she helped make the ‘Rosie the Riveter’ park a reality. She has a page full of honors. She attended Barack Obama’s inauguration, as his guest. But she considers this incident one of the defining moments of her life.



Betty’s experience affirms what we all know, that old people are tough. She inspires us to do whatever we are able to do even in the most fearful of circumstances, and she reminds us just how resilient we humans are. You can listen to her story on The Moth Podcast. I’ll ask Debbie to include the link. As many of you have requested, today and every week going forward, we will be blessed and inspired by the music of our one and only, Jane Lindberg. Stay safe. And keep in touch.

(The link to the story referenced by Rev Kathy's sermon is https://themoth.org/radio-hour/truth-and-power-global-stories-of-women .)