I see no takers
Anyway, I did some more research on this issue, and when I use double quotes in the message definitions (instead of single ones), some of the messages appear blank (empty) in the resulting e-mail. Dug into the original CB code and method for password recovery / change, and I do not see anything obvious there.
One of the pathways I think I'll follow is to see the difference when I send e-mail via SMTP gateway, instead of PHP e-mail functions.
Any additional info greatly appreciated.