Hearth Resident Rose LaRosa Has Life Down to an Art

Rose LaRosa may be turning 95 next month, but that hasn’t stopped her from enjoying the things she loves most: art, music, friends, and family. That’s why when Rose moved to The Hearth last Fall, her children made sure that her apartment reflected everything she holds dear.

“My younger brother put up all the paintings because he’s the artistic guy,” Rose’s daughter, Laura LaRosa, explains. “She likes her paintings, and in this room she can really enjoy them.”

Rose’s apartment—masterfully decorated with oil paintings, hand-painted metal plates, an elaborate antique wrought-iron gate, and family mementos—could pass for a small fine arts gallery. Each piece reflects a life filled with beauty and kinship.

Rose was born in Brooklyn, and it was in New York where she met her husband, Joseph. The story of how they first met is one that that Laura loves to tell.

“They didn’t meet by being set up,” she says. “They met at a party. When he asked her name, she said Rose DeFrancisci, and he recognized it immediately. He said, ‘Oh, does your father make the macaroni machinery?’ My father manufactured pasta using her family’s machines for LaRosa Pasta. They say my father was the best macaroni man in the world.”

The rest was history. The couple’s bond, rooted in pasta and tradition, led to a marriage that lasted seven decades. Together, they raised four children and enjoyed good food, traveling, culture, and family.

LaRosa Pasta, initially headquartered in an 18-story Brooklyn building, eventually moved to Warminster, PA, where it employed thousands and became the largest-selling pasta brand in the United States for years. The family lived in nearby Warrington, where Rose became a vital member of the community.

“We had a beautiful home there,” Rose says. “It was all stone, front and back.” In fact, The Hearth’s stone architecture is reminiscent of her time in Bucks County and the days she volunteered with The Welcome Wagon, the local thrift shop, and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation.

“I’ve always been busy,” Rose says with a laugh.

As part of her volunteer efforts with the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, Rose traveled to Korea after the war on two occasions to bring mixed-race children—children of American soldiers who, through no fault of their own, were shunned—back to the United States for adoption. Rose remembers both the heartbreak and hope of these trips: The Korean mothers crying as they said goodbye and the American mothers weeping with joy as they welcomed their new children at the airport.

While she was a phenomenal cook and the heart of family gatherings, art was always at the center of Rose’s life, whether she was collecting paintings, visiting museums and opera houses on her trips to Europe, attending a Broadway matinee with friends, or picking up a brush in her home studio after she and Joseph moved to Florida.

“She is a very, very fine artist herself,” says Laura.

Rose may be modest about her own work, but her paintings on ceramic are indeed stunning. Rose explains how she created her pieces: “You’d have to leave space for the darkness and light. And after you painted it, you would fire it in a kiln for an hour. It was beautiful.”

Her children and grandchildren treasure her many works and display them in their homes.

At The Hearth, Rose now participates in the arts by attending musical performances and art classes, though she can also be found enjoying a few rounds of bingo as well. In her now home, she is surrounded by grace, creativity, and the love of her family—proof that a life well lived is truly a work of art.