Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Rosemary Schultz Riccardi, aka Xavora Pove


Rosemary Schultz became a talented pianist at a very young age. She was the daughter of Sandusky residents Frank and Mary Schultz. Her mother, the former Mary Walker, had been an opera singer. At the age of three, Rosemary studied piano with Paul Browne Patterson, who operated a music school in Sandusky and founded the Sandusky Choral Society. Later she studied under the popular Swiss musician, Rudoph Ganz. At the age of five, she appeared at the Masonic Auditorium in Cleveland before an audience of 4,000. 

Here she is (center) pictured below with local performer Bonnie Schwerer (left) and another unidentified woman:  

After graduating from St. Mary’s High School, Rosemary moved to New York, where she continued working as a pianist, and took up modeling. In the 1960s, she wrote an astrology column for Harper’s Bazaar, under the pen name Xavora Pove. The following article about Rosemary appeared in the Sandusky Register of January 14, 1967.


In 1968, she helped develop a television game show “Guess My Sign,” which aired in New York City. Through the years Rosemary entertained people throughout the Midwest., and eventually she moved back to Sandusky. She passed away on November 27, 2016, and was survived by her son David. Her husband Patsy Riccardi predeceased Rosemary and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.