Rosemarie Gusciora, a civically and politically engaged former court administrator with a towering presence as surrogate mother to her children's friends, once carved out her own spot in the annals of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Beholden to her Italian heritage, Gusciora improvised delectable meals and goodies in overindulgent quantities for relatives, friends and guests of family gatherings. The tale, recounted in her obituary, was that one Christmas, Gusciora almost poisoned everyone by accidentally adding amaryllis bulb as an ingredient to the dinner.