Her father died when she was five, and her mother, Nina, left with two little girls, as well as six boys from her husband's previous marriage, found it increasingly hard to maintain their livelihood.

As a woman, she was not allowed to run the apothecary alone, and the municipality appointed overseers for short terms of office to operate the business, but their frequent replacement resulted in poor management.

One of them, a Mr. Gruber, regaled young Rozália with wonderful tales of the Budapest theatrical scene, and she started to dream about joining the world of actors, even though she had never seen a play.

An old family friend, a Mr. Rothkrepf, with whom they stayed, took the young girl to her first theatrical play, after which she desperately sought to join the show, sneaking into the dressing rooms multiple times.

When Nina Schenbach, her widowed mother, learnt of her daughter's enthusiasm for theatre, she went personally to Pest to take her girl, “seduced by the corrupt morals of the city,” back to Jászberény.

Waiting behind the curtains for her first small role, she was blocked by the director, at the behest of the older actresses, who thought she “looked and acted foolishly,” from being allowed on stage.

In the next decades she toured nearly every major city in the Hungarian parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, like Kassa, Brassó, Pécs, Debrecen and Kolozsvár, and became the first widely known actress in the country.

Feeling neglected and isolated, Déryné started to tour again, visiting stages from her golden days: Kassa, Kolozsvár, Debrecen, and the smaller cities of Transylvania.

Battling worsening health, she wrote the manuscript for three years at monumental length, posting it in a continuous flow of large packets to her mentor.

Besides being the first universally acclaimed actress of the country, Déryné translated 12 German plays to Hungarian, and had leading role in the foundation of the first opera companies in the region.