Rose Nylund (née Lindstrom) is from the small farming town of St. Olaf, Minnesota, a community of Norwegian-Americans. Rose loves telling profoundly strange stories of life growing up there. Typical stories focused on people with names such as Hans, Lars, or Sven and various experiences with herring. Though Rose was decidedly the mildest-mannered of all four roommates, she had an incredibly competitive streak, which reared its head during several situations, most notably the bowling championship in the episode entitled "The Competition" and while coaching a boys' football team with Dorothy.
Rose was known for being quite naive and taking the meaning of everything literally. She was considered rather stupid by the other characters but occasionally offered superior insight and knowledge. She once helped Dorothy install a new toilet and exhibited thorough knowledge of plumbing parts, and claimed that the Journal of Abnormal Psychology was published in St. Olaf and she'd read every issue.
Rose had five children: three daughters (Kirsten, Bridgette and Jeanella) and two sons (Adam and Charlie Jr). Kirsten and Bridgette would visit their mother in Miami on more than one occasion, while Adam, Charlie, Jr., and Jeanella were mentioned, but never seen on the show. Rose had several grandchildren, including two granddaughters, Charley and Charlene (the former appeared on The Golden Girls and the latter visited Rose in The Golden Palace).
After Charlie's death in 1980, Rose lived alone in St. Olaf for a while, and then she moved to Miami and found work at a grief counseling center. During the show's run, Charlie's pension was cut off and Rose was forced to find a more lucrative job, ending up as the assistant to consumer reporter Enrique Mas at a local TV station. Over the course of the series, Rose also volunteered at the local hospital and worked on a number of charity projects.
In later seasons, Rose became romantically involved with college professor Miles Webber (played by Harold Gould). Rose later discovered that Miles was part of the Witness Protection Program. Webber was stated as previously being known as Nicholas Carbone, an accountant from Chicago. After a gangster named Mickey "The Cheese Man" Moran ( Barney Martin ) faked his own death, Miles was briefly re-located to Pennsylvania as an Amish farmer named Samuel Plankmaker. Incidentally, the same actor who played Miles also played "Arnie," one of Rose's brief love interests in the first season.
Rose suffered from a number of health problems during the course of the show, most notably a massive heart attack during the show's final season. In one episode, it was also indicated that Rose had been addicted to painkillers for many years, having been prescribed a drug many years earlier after a farm injury. Also, in an episode entitled "72 Hours," Rose was informed that a blood transfusion she received during a routine surgery was possibly infected with HIV. After undergoing some routine tests, and anxiously waiting for three days, she was determined to be HIV-negative.