Rosebud Frantz; Named Linked to ‘Citizen Kane’

Rosebud Yellow Robe Frantz, a great-grandniece of Chief Sitting Bull who has been cited as the possible source of the mysterious term “Rosebud” in the classic film “Citizen Kane,” has died in New York. She was 85.

Rosebud, as she preferred to be known, was director for many years of the Indian Village at Jones Beach State Park and enthralled visitors with tales of Indian culture and her Lakota Sioux ancestors. She died Monday.

In the 1930s, she worked at the CBS radio network with Orson Welles, who later directed “Citizen Kane” and played the title role. The Las Vegas Sun once published a theory that when Charles Foster Kane, the protagonist of the movie, uttered “Rosebud” as his last word, it was in reference to her.