Rose Nylund
Encyclopedia
Rose Nylund was born May 1930 in St. Olaf, Minnesota. She is a fictional character
featured on the popular 1980s situation comedy
The Golden Girls
, and its spin-off The Golden Palace
. She was portrayed by Betty White
for 8 years and 208 episodes.
Rose was comically portrayed as naïve and simple, although arguably the most kind-hearted. She was best known for her rambling, nonsensical stories about her bizarre hometown, St. Olaf, Minnesota, that her roommates endured with exasperated silence—and the occasional muttered insult. However in the last episode of the first season which details how the girls first came to live together, it is one of Roses' rambling stories about St. Olaf that bring the girls together and convince them to try living together.
Rose’s teenage years are somewhat of a mystery. It was stated that she was valedictorian in her high school graduation (fourth out of nineteen, and was chosen valedictorian because she drew the longest straw), she attended St. Paul Business School, Rockport Community College, and St. Gustaf University (where she studied Pig Latin) but also that she had never graduated from high school (due to a case of mono
). She also lost the St. Olaf Butter Queen pageant as a teenager due to a case of "churn tampering." Her parents did not allow her to date
until she was a high school senior, and between then and her wedding day, she had over fifty boyfriends. One of these boyfriends was Charlie Nylund, a World War II
veteran
. Charlie and Rose fell in love and married in 1948 (which would have made her just 17 at the time, which may be a result of continuity
issues). Rose was a virgin on her wedding night. Despite this, she and Charlie had a very active sex life, making love every single night for the first 18 years of their marriage. At this revelation, Blanche and Dorothy were incredulous, but Rose revealed that this was how she once suspected Charlie was cheating on her, by missing a single night. Later, Rose further reveals that she and Charlie not only had sex every night but also every morning. As Rose put it: "Not all night. Just seven to midnight every night, five to seven every morning, until noon on Sundays." Blanche's dumbfounded reply was "Good lord, no wonder you still mourn that man."
Charlie and Rose had a long and happy marriage. Over the course of the series, Rose names five children: Brigid, Gunilla , Kirsten, Adam, and Charlie Jr. However, she never plainly states that she has 5 children; in fact, in the episode "The Accurate Concepcion", she lists the St Olaf holidays on which all of her children were conceived, but she only mentions three children. This is possibly due to continuity errors. Rose also had two granddaughters by Kirsten - Charlie (named for Kirsten's father) and another unnamed, mentioned in the episode where Rose had her heart attack. Kirsten refers to her "girls" being at home. Of her children, only Briget and Kirsten appeared on the show (although Kirsten was played by two different actresses).
Rose lost Charlie when he had a heart attack while he and Rose were making love and this gave Rose a fear of sexual intimacy for several years thereafter. She mentions this was due to the confusion caused by her husband's last words, "Rose, I'm going, I'm going!" Years later, another boyfriend of Rose's died in a similar fashion and Rose had to inform the man's wife how he died (Rose did not know he was married until after his death). Charlie and Rose's marriage length is unclear. Although it was mentioned in the 1985 pilot episode that Charlie had been dead for 15 years, in the first season episode "Job Hunting", Rose says that she had been a housewife for 32 years when Charlie died in 1970 At another point in the story, Rose Nylund mentions she had a cat, Scruffy, yet Dorothy points out in another episode she has cat allergies. This is also a continuity error.
In the late-first season episode "Job Hunting," Dorothy states that Rose is 55 years old in 1986, which would put her birth year in 1930 or 1931. This makes her 54 or 55 when the series begins and 62 when the final season of The Golden Palace
goes off the air in 1993.
She dates infrequently at the series start, though some of her early suitors include a little person named Dr. Jonathon Newman, who dumps her because she is not Jewish; Arnie, a kind man who takes her on a cruise; and Al, the married man who ends up dying in her bed. Rose finally finds a significant romance with college professor Miles Webber, though their relationship is put through a serious strain when it is revealed that Miles is actually a former mobster accountant named Nicholas Carbone, and a participant in the witness protection program. His former employer, "The Cheese Man," begins dating Rose in order to get information on Miles's whereabouts, though at this point Miles has relocated to the Amish country. Eventually The Cheese Man is apprehended, Rose and Miles resume their lives together, and all goes well for the next year or so.
In season 7, Rose and Miles consider marriage, but ultimately decide against rushing into anything. He continues to be seen throughout the show's run and The Golden Palace, but later Blanche finds out that a 'Miles Webber' has been checking in to the hotel, a lot so Rose finds out and breaks it off with him. However, it wasn't the 'Miles Webber' that they expected. Rose wanted to get back together with him, but never got the chance to call him because of an upcoming wedding at the hotel. Little did she know, it's Miles who's getting married, and they all find out that indeed Miles did cheat on her and he ends up marrying another woman at the hotel.
During the show's seven-year run, St. Olaf was only seen twice in flashbacks and once when the girls visited during an episode in which Rose was nominated for St Olaf's Woman of the Year award, ultimately winning a gold trophy, or rather, a milk chocolate trophy wrapped in gold colored foil. In the flashbacks you see the inside of Rose's kitchen, and the inside of a bus depot, and in the episode where they visit St. Olaf you see the back of the donkey cart the girls are riding in.
The townspeople built a statue dedicated to Blanche, after she returned to them a large surplus of war bonds she found in a box of junk she bought from Rose.
, and is quite adept in the show's trivia.
In another episode, Dorothy and Blanche were talking about the film Dirty Dancing
, with Dorothy saying how "well" they dance in that movie. Rose, in the meantime, who was not in the conversation asked "what movie?", and Dorothy snapped at Rose and sarcastically says, "Lawrence of Arabia
, Rose!" This came back to bite them when on a couple of episodes where the roof was leaking, Rose walks out of her room carrying two buckets and Dorothy asks if the ceiling in her room is leaking too, and Rose says "No, Dorothy, I just finished milking the cow I keep in my closet! Gee, with only three hours of sleep I can be as bitchy as you!" On another episode (where her sister Holly comes to visit, much to the dismay of Rose) Rose says she's a flautist. Dorothy asks Rose if she plays a flute
, and Rose comes back and says, "No, Dorothy, she plays a 'flaut'. It's a big instrument that looks like a tuba
, except it has hair at the bottom of it. Of course she plays a flute!"
At one extremely rare point where Dorothy and Blanche had gotten into an argument, both of them at the same time say, "Shut up, Rose!" (another noticeable line said by the other women), and leave. Then Rose, with a puppy in her hand, says, "It's all right, Rose. I used to live with a couple of bitches myself," (imitating the puppy, as if he were speaking).
Rose's hair color is something debated from time to time. She claims it's her natural color, but Blanche and Sophia have repeatedly said it was cheap hair dye. This is presumably confirmed Rose's old boyfriend came to visit and declared "You're blonde!". Once, while Rose was talking about how she never lied, Dorothy asked her what her natural hair color was. She left the room. On one occasion, Sophia remarks that she is known as a dumb blonde
. In another episode while Blanche was discussing her hair's "natural hue" Rows (as she spelled it out for an acquaintance once in an episode later in the series) had mentioned "To be perfectly honest -I use a touch of peroxide". This confession of course came out of the blue irrelevantly (in this particular episode) and was immediately followed by an irritated Dorothy who shouted "OH, SHUT UP ROSE!"
to prescription painkillers. Rose also endured an AIDS
scare in February 1990, when she was alerted that a blood transfusion
she had received during an operation several years before may have been tainted with HIV
. In late April/early May 1992, Rose suffered a major heart attack
and had to have a triple bypass surgery.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
featured on the popular 1980s situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
, and its spin-off The Golden Palace
The Golden Palace
The Golden Palace is an American sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 18, 1992, to May 14, 1993. The show was a spin-off and continuation of the sitcom The Golden Girls....
. She was portrayed by Betty White
Betty White
Betty White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and...
for 8 years and 208 episodes.
Rose was comically portrayed as naïve and simple, although arguably the most kind-hearted. She was best known for her rambling, nonsensical stories about her bizarre hometown, St. Olaf, Minnesota, that her roommates endured with exasperated silence—and the occasional muttered insult. However in the last episode of the first season which details how the girls first came to live together, it is one of Roses' rambling stories about St. Olaf that bring the girls together and convince them to try living together.
Pre-1985
Rose's biological parents were a monk named brother Martin and an 18-year-old girl named Ingrid Kerklavoner, who died giving birth to Rose. Brother Martin claimed to have not known about Rose's existence until after she had been given up for adoption. She was adopted by the Lindstrom's at an early age. Rose met the love of her life, Charlie Nylund, when he sold her a nickel insurance policy on her little red wagon, when she was 7 years old. Rose fell in love with Charlie because he paid for a new wagon after the old one was destroyed when "some hogs trampled it", even though her policy "didn't cover acts of swine."Rose’s teenage years are somewhat of a mystery. It was stated that she was valedictorian in her high school graduation (fourth out of nineteen, and was chosen valedictorian because she drew the longest straw), she attended St. Paul Business School, Rockport Community College, and St. Gustaf University (where she studied Pig Latin) but also that she had never graduated from high school (due to a case of mono
Infectious mononucleosis
Infectious mononucleosis is an infectious, widespread viral...
). She also lost the St. Olaf Butter Queen pageant as a teenager due to a case of "churn tampering." Her parents did not allow her to date
Courtship
Courtship is the period in a couple's relationship which precedes their engagement and marriage, or establishment of an agreed relationship of a more enduring kind. In courtship, a couple get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement or other such agreement...
until she was a high school senior, and between then and her wedding day, she had over fifty boyfriends. One of these boyfriends was Charlie Nylund, a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
. Charlie and Rose fell in love and married in 1948 (which would have made her just 17 at the time, which may be a result of continuity
Continuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
issues). Rose was a virgin on her wedding night. Despite this, she and Charlie had a very active sex life, making love every single night for the first 18 years of their marriage. At this revelation, Blanche and Dorothy were incredulous, but Rose revealed that this was how she once suspected Charlie was cheating on her, by missing a single night. Later, Rose further reveals that she and Charlie not only had sex every night but also every morning. As Rose put it: "Not all night. Just seven to midnight every night, five to seven every morning, until noon on Sundays." Blanche's dumbfounded reply was "Good lord, no wonder you still mourn that man."
Charlie and Rose had a long and happy marriage. Over the course of the series, Rose names five children: Brigid, Gunilla , Kirsten, Adam, and Charlie Jr. However, she never plainly states that she has 5 children; in fact, in the episode "The Accurate Concepcion", she lists the St Olaf holidays on which all of her children were conceived, but she only mentions three children. This is possibly due to continuity errors. Rose also had two granddaughters by Kirsten - Charlie (named for Kirsten's father) and another unnamed, mentioned in the episode where Rose had her heart attack. Kirsten refers to her "girls" being at home. Of her children, only Briget and Kirsten appeared on the show (although Kirsten was played by two different actresses).
Rose lost Charlie when he had a heart attack while he and Rose were making love and this gave Rose a fear of sexual intimacy for several years thereafter. She mentions this was due to the confusion caused by her husband's last words, "Rose, I'm going, I'm going!" Years later, another boyfriend of Rose's died in a similar fashion and Rose had to inform the man's wife how he died (Rose did not know he was married until after his death). Charlie and Rose's marriage length is unclear. Although it was mentioned in the 1985 pilot episode that Charlie had been dead for 15 years, in the first season episode "Job Hunting", Rose says that she had been a housewife for 32 years when Charlie died in 1970 At another point in the story, Rose Nylund mentions she had a cat, Scruffy, yet Dorothy points out in another episode she has cat allergies. This is also a continuity error.
In the late-first season episode "Job Hunting," Dorothy states that Rose is 55 years old in 1986, which would put her birth year in 1930 or 1931. This makes her 54 or 55 when the series begins and 62 when the final season of The Golden Palace
The Golden Palace
The Golden Palace is an American sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 18, 1992, to May 14, 1993. The show was a spin-off and continuation of the sitcom The Golden Girls....
goes off the air in 1993.
1985-1993
Rose was laid off from her job at the grief counseling center in 1986, and briefly worked a minimum wage job as a waitress at a coffee shop before being rehired at the counseling center shortly after. Later on in the series, Rose suffers financial difficulties when her late husband's employer files for bankruptcy and her pension is cut off. She suffers from age discrimination in her attempts to get a new, higher paying job, but her luck changes when she gets a position as assistant to TV consumer reporter Enrique Más.She dates infrequently at the series start, though some of her early suitors include a little person named Dr. Jonathon Newman, who dumps her because she is not Jewish; Arnie, a kind man who takes her on a cruise; and Al, the married man who ends up dying in her bed. Rose finally finds a significant romance with college professor Miles Webber, though their relationship is put through a serious strain when it is revealed that Miles is actually a former mobster accountant named Nicholas Carbone, and a participant in the witness protection program. His former employer, "The Cheese Man," begins dating Rose in order to get information on Miles's whereabouts, though at this point Miles has relocated to the Amish country. Eventually The Cheese Man is apprehended, Rose and Miles resume their lives together, and all goes well for the next year or so.
In season 7, Rose and Miles consider marriage, but ultimately decide against rushing into anything. He continues to be seen throughout the show's run and The Golden Palace, but later Blanche finds out that a 'Miles Webber' has been checking in to the hotel, a lot so Rose finds out and breaks it off with him. However, it wasn't the 'Miles Webber' that they expected. Rose wanted to get back together with him, but never got the chance to call him because of an upcoming wedding at the hotel. Little did she know, it's Miles who's getting married, and they all find out that indeed Miles did cheat on her and he ends up marrying another woman at the hotel.
St. Olaf
According to Rose, St. Olaf is a Norwegian farming settlement in northern Minnesota, known on local license plates as "Big Statue Country". The town can be reached by train from Minneapolis to Tyler's Landing, changing at St. Gustav (St. Olaf's sister city and dubbed "The City that Never Naps") with the final leg completed by toboggan. You may also fly to St. Gustav and transfer to a train and then donkey cart service that takes 2–3 days. Additionally, a "Yokel Service" is available for those who wish to be entertained by a family of first cousins playing banjos. The people of St. Olaf also apparently burned a man at the stake, assuming he was a witch when he pulled a rabbit out of his hat as a magic trick.During the show's seven-year run, St. Olaf was only seen twice in flashbacks and once when the girls visited during an episode in which Rose was nominated for St Olaf's Woman of the Year award, ultimately winning a gold trophy, or rather, a milk chocolate trophy wrapped in gold colored foil. In the flashbacks you see the inside of Rose's kitchen, and the inside of a bus depot, and in the episode where they visit St. Olaf you see the back of the donkey cart the girls are riding in.
History
One of St. Olaf's chief attractions is a giant black hole, which the townspeople enjoyed standing around and looking at - which prompted Dorothy to refer to St. Olaf sarcastically as the real "entertainment capital of the world." St. Olafians also celebrate various oddly themed festivals, including; "Hay Day" (the day everyone in town celebrates hay),"The Crowning of the Princess Pig", "The Day of the Wheat" (where everyone goes to town dressed like sandwiches), "The Festival of the Dancing Sturgeons" (a festival where the townsfolk watch sturgeons flopping around on the dock), a "Butter Queen" competition (in which Rose almost won, however her churn jammed causing her to believe it had been tampered with), and a milk diving competition (Rose ranked in the "low fat" division), as well as many other events, including the "Little Miss St. Olaf" pagaent, which Rose apparently entered 23 years in a row, and lost one year to a contestant's imaginary friend.The townspeople built a statue dedicated to Blanche, after she returned to them a large surplus of war bonds she found in a box of junk she bought from Rose.
Language
St. Olaf appears to be a bilingual town with a significant amount of unique vocabulary (that may be specific to the area and not appearing in standard Norwegian). Rose uses these phrases quite often, to the exasperation of her roommates. Examples include Gerkanenaken (an insult which also means the precise moment when dog feces turns white), Tubbenburbles (buttocks), Ugel and Flugel (a Hide and seek game for adults) and Vanskapkaka (a special "friendship" cake. "Vänskapskaka" actually means "friendship cake" in Swedish, while the Norwegian translation would be "Vennskapskake").Hobbies
Although all four women volunteered their time, Rose was arguably the most involved in charity work. She drove a bookmobile, was a candy striper at a hospital, and helped organize a charity talent show, among other things. She listed cheese making and Viking history as hobbies on her resume, as well. She was a perennial runner up for a Volunteer of the Year award, even coming in second one year to a woman who was already dead. According to the episode Nice and Easy, Rose was also a fan of the hit television series Miami ViceMiami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
, and is quite adept in the show's trivia.
Personality
Rose is something of a pushover who rarely stands up for herself. On one occasion her blind sister Lily tried to guilt Rose into moving to Chicago to take care of her. At Dorothy's urging Rose said no to Lily which forced Lily to learn how to care for herself. In The Golden Palace, Rose has a much more resilient will and becomes a much stronger personality after Dorothy's departure from the group (as Dorothy notes during her lone appearance on The Golden Palace-- "Seems Like Old Times"-- when she states "When did she become the strong one?").Running Gags
Rose is the fool of the group, and has been the center of a few running gags. The most common being that she would ask a really stupid question, the others would look at her oddly, and then say something sarcastic (most noticeably Dorothy and Sophia), such as on the episode "Transplant" from Season 1, where Blanche's sister Virginia comes to visit. Blanche, tired of her sister always wanting something of hers is shocked when Virginia reveals she is dying and needs a kidney transplant. When Blanche tells the girls that Virginia wants her kidney, Rose asks "Why does she need a kidney?" Dorothy explodes "TO FEED THE CAT, ROSE!"In another episode, Dorothy and Blanche were talking about the film Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing is a 1987 American romantic film. Written by Eleanor Bergstein and directed by Emile Ardolino, the film features Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the lead roles, as well as Cynthia Rhodes and Jerry Orbach...
, with Dorothy saying how "well" they dance in that movie. Rose, in the meantime, who was not in the conversation asked "what movie?", and Dorothy snapped at Rose and sarcastically says, "Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia (film)
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely...
, Rose!" This came back to bite them when on a couple of episodes where the roof was leaking, Rose walks out of her room carrying two buckets and Dorothy asks if the ceiling in her room is leaking too, and Rose says "No, Dorothy, I just finished milking the cow I keep in my closet! Gee, with only three hours of sleep I can be as bitchy as you!" On another episode (where her sister Holly comes to visit, much to the dismay of Rose) Rose says she's a flautist. Dorothy asks Rose if she plays a flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, and Rose comes back and says, "No, Dorothy, she plays a 'flaut'. It's a big instrument that looks like a tuba
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
, except it has hair at the bottom of it. Of course she plays a flute!"
At one extremely rare point where Dorothy and Blanche had gotten into an argument, both of them at the same time say, "Shut up, Rose!" (another noticeable line said by the other women), and leave. Then Rose, with a puppy in her hand, says, "It's all right, Rose. I used to live with a couple of bitches myself," (imitating the puppy, as if he were speaking).
Rose's hair color is something debated from time to time. She claims it's her natural color, but Blanche and Sophia have repeatedly said it was cheap hair dye. This is presumably confirmed Rose's old boyfriend came to visit and declared "You're blonde!". Once, while Rose was talking about how she never lied, Dorothy asked her what her natural hair color was. She left the room. On one occasion, Sophia remarks that she is known as a dumb blonde
Dumb blonde
The blonde stereotype, the stereotypical perception of blond-haired women, has two aspects. On one hand, over the history, blonde hair in women has been considered attractive and desirable...
. In another episode while Blanche was discussing her hair's "natural hue" Rows (as she spelled it out for an acquaintance once in an episode later in the series) had mentioned "To be perfectly honest -I use a touch of peroxide". This confession of course came out of the blue irrelevantly (in this particular episode) and was immediately followed by an irritated Dorothy who shouted "OH, SHUT UP ROSE!"
Health issues
Rose suffered a number of major health problems during the series. In January 1987, she had an esophageal spasm that caused a near-death experience. In March 1989, Rose came clean about a decades-long addictionSubstance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
to prescription painkillers. Rose also endured an AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
scare in February 1990, when she was alerted that a blood transfusion
Blood transfusion
Blood transfusion is the process of receiving blood products into one's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used in a variety of medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood...
she had received during an operation several years before may have been tainted with HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
. In late April/early May 1992, Rose suffered a major heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
and had to have a triple bypass surgery.