Rosemary’s Legacy

The name, “Rosemary”, derives from the Latin word rosmarinus, meaning dew of the sea. According to the legends of antiquity, the plant adorned the Goddess Aphrodite, as she arose from the foam of the seashore. The herb, native to the Mediterranean region, flowers aromatic leaves and cerulean petals. In the Christian tradition, the Virgin Mary spread her blue cloak across a rosemary bush, causing the plant to blossom in hues of the ocean and sky. One of the most salient characteristics of Rosemary is its ability to flower outside the temperate seasons. Throughout time, the plant, blooming in the deepest of winters, has served as an ethereal reminder of summer and light. The word has come to evoke enduring beauty, love, and remembrance. 

Rosemary Casey Toumbas was a lover of language. Growing up in an Irish Catholic household in Boston, she mastered French, Latin, Ancient Greek, and Modern Greek. Graduating from Smith College, she earned her PhD, in 2001, from the University Professors Program at Boston University. Rosemary’s dissertation focused on the role of the media in the resurgence of Greek nationalism, during the Macedonian conflict of the 1990's. She loved melodrama, the media, and the intersection of creative mediums. An eighties radio DJ and founding TV producer at New England Cable News, she harnessed immense joy from music, the moving image, and the written form.

Rosemary fit a few lifetimes into forty nine years, and she still had plans to write novels, recipes, scripts, and radio dramas. We invite you to take from her garden of unharvested seeds. In the spirit of Rosemary’s living memory, we hope that you will tend to your budding stories.