Your roses might not be dead; there could be live cane below the soil line, or at the soil line. I would prune off the dead wood, and see what happens this spring. I'm not familiar with Don Juan, but it might be prone to dieback in a cold zone.

Die-back on roses is not a specific disease. It can be caused by frost damage, canker at the base of the stem, water-logging, mildew, and blackspot. Some colours are more susceptable to it such as yellow and orange varieties.

I'm on a laptop ..I don't own a cell phone people nowadays are just to "busy" their like pod people everywhere you look someone is using one..anyway I took the aeonium out of the soil and washed the roots off and pulled any dead roots I saw off it has lots of lil white roots (Dear God I hope that's a good sign) and it doesn't smell funky and the stem all the way down to the root system is strong and sturdy there was some dark coloration near the bottom of the stem but I rub it with a q-tip and it cleaned up.. Thanks Rina i'll try Houzz Photos maybe that will work for me.. Nope still nada no pic =( It worked one time and then when I tried to change the pic (I uploaded the wrong one) it wouldn't let me ..darn.. Should I spray the roots with an organic fungicide before I repot the plant just to be safe?

Could have been any number of reasons why it died as stated above, we don't know what conditions you gave it...other than 'probably' poor soil. My first thought would be starvation from being in the same pot/soil for o19 years. I assume by 'dirt' you mean potting mixture? I know in the US garden soil is referred to as dirt on occasions. Etiolaion could also cause total collapse. If it's been in the same pot for 19 years, either it was way overpotted to start with, or at its end it was too crammed in and rootbound as I'm assuming it had grown somewhat? Was it ever fed, how often was it watered, did it get a teaspoon of water or a 5 hour soaking each time, did it have adequate light, had it been moved into a draughty area for some reason, where was it kept? I know say it thrived but without pics we can't even be sure of that....have you any pics of the deceased? There is a vast difference between someone's vision of a thriving plant and one that is actually only clinging to life in reality. If you decide to buy another one, best advice is to at least change its mixture more frequently than you did do. However, please give us more info, only then 'maybe' we can guess better. Gill