Rosalin Relyea

Waterford - On April 17, 2009, Rosalin Ricci Relyea, 64, danced peacefully into death as she did through life following heart valve failure and a hard-fought battle with cancer. Her loving husband, David, sons, Dave and Mark and daughter-in-law, Julie Wernau, were at her side.

Driven by her love of dance, at just 12 years old, Rosie commuted daily by bus and subway from her parents' home in Teaneck, N.J. to New York City to attend ballet theater school and professional children's school. Born into a family of dedicated musicians, including her father, world-famous violinist Ruggiero Ricci, Rosie's interest in dance began as a "sinful route" away from violin, and quickly evolved into a focused passion that would travel with her for the rest of her life.

At 17 years old, Rosie joined the American Ballet Theater company, where she danced beside and most admired Lupe Serrano, Erik Bruhn, and Rudolf Nureyev and toured the United States and South America on the tips of her toes. She studied under Richard Thomas Sr. and Barbara Fallis of the New York School of Ballet and occasionally babysat for their son "little Richard," who would go on to star in "The Waltons." She met her future husband and best friend, David, a company manager on and off Broadway, living in her Manhattan apartment building, where the two lived among the poor theater folks of the city, a range of background characters, middle managers, and still undiscovered talents. Atop Rosie's refrigerator slept a wildcat named Mishu whom only she could kiss without injury.

A woman who valued honesty and simplicity over fame and materialism, Rosie documented her dance tours with few words, scribbling each day in notebooks barely the size of a matchbox. Her clothes were mostly hand sewn throughout her life.

Measuring just over five feet tall, Rosie's height kept her from a solo career with the American Ballet Theater. However, she went on to perform as both a leading lady and in other on-and-off Broadway roles with the Pennsylvania Ballet Company, Baltimore City Ballet, Garden State Ballet, and Rabovsky's Ballets Bihari and taught at the Alvin Ailey's American Dance Center and Brooklyn College, among others.

In 1977, following the birth of their first son, Rosie and David moved to Waterford, where they jointly created the New London School of Dance in Jordan Village. The school drew its faculty and celebrity guest instructors from the American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College. Her children's company, The Dance Dictionary, presented free performances of classical and theatrical dance throughout Southeastern Connecticut during the 1980s. In a feature article about the company's arrival in the Aug. 30, 1980 edition of The Day, David, then business manager for the National Theatre of the Deaf at EugeneO'Neill Theater Center, explained "We've known each other for about 10 years, and most of the time, we've been working in the arts. But this is the first time we've ever worked together."

Rosie also choreographed the first ever Waterford Week pageant and taught at Imperial Academy of Dance in East Lyme and at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, where she created her own form of sign language in order to teach dance moves to performers with the National Theatre of the Deaf.

Dance was so much a part of Rosie's life that her sons would arrive home from school to find that their mother had fallen asleep with one leg against the wall in a full split or on the floor in some other seemingly impossible position. Following four hip surgeries, Rosie, who had a way of winning every card and board game the first time she played it, developed a love for numbers and worked as a bookkeeper for Burr Plumbing & Heating in Waterford from 1993 until her retirement in 2007.

Growing up, Mark and Dave said their mother never swore except in sign language and would use the threat of "tickling" as punishment. Daily, she cared for a menagerie of plants in the family's sunny living room in Ridgewood Park and was always ready with a gardening tip or home remedy for her children and their friends. Having grown up cooking for her family by age 11, Rosie developed into a creative and talented chef who served up delicious delicacies using ingredients from the family garden. Throughout her life, she catalogued 5,739 recipes. Dave's and Mark's friends considered Rosie to be their second mother, and the Relyea home was a frequent hangout spot for hungry teenagers looking to play video games or shoot pool.

Despite being stricken with the rarest of conditions, a mono-cuspid aortic valve, Waldenström Macroglobulinemia and bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaw, Rosie was blessed with beauty and happiness throughout her final days thanks to the devoted and caring staff at The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Bayview Health Care Center in Waterford, and Hospice Southeastern Connecticut. Rosie made the decision to donate her body to Yale University with the hope that in death she might help to save thelives of others.

She is survived by her husband, David Relyea of Waterford; her sons, Mark Relyea of Quaker Hill and David Relyea of Hamden; her daughter-in-law, Julie Wernau of Quaker Hill; her sister, Rianna Muller of Lewisburg, Pa.; her brother, Roger Ricci of New York City; her father, Ruggiero Ricci of Palm Springs, Calif.; and her uncle, George Ricci of Boca Raton, Fla.

She was predeceased by her mother, Ruth Rink.

Memorial arrangements will be private.

Donations in Rosie's memory may be made to the American Cancer Society.