Rosina Hay was born in Germany, evidently in what was then the sovereign state of Baden. Hired as nursemaid to SLC’s daughter Susy in January 1874, “Rosa,” as she was known, also served as German tutor to the Clemens children, and accompanied the family to Germany and other parts of Europe in 1878–79. SLC later recalled, apparently inaccurately, that Rosina lived with them for “twelve years”; in fact, she married Horace K. Terwilliger in 1883 and was living with him in Elmira, New York, by 1885.