Clintonville grieved yesterday as word filtered out that the beloved former owner of Nancy's Home Cooking restaurant had died after a long bout with heart disease.

Clintonville grieved yesterday as word filtered out that the beloved former owner of Nancy�s Home Cooking restaurant had died after a long bout with heart disease.

�We will miss you Cindy. RIP� said the sign in front of Patrick J�s, a popular Clintonville bar just down the street from Nancy�s on N. High Street.

Cindy King, 63, died Saturday.

On the restaurant�s Facebook page, more than 100 fans praised King�s generosity, her big heart and the signature meatloaf and chicken and noodles she served at the diner she bought in 1970.

�I didn�t want to buy a new sign, so I bought Nancy�s name for $100,� she explained to a reporter in 2006.

�People call me �Nancy� all the time. It�s kind of funny.�

King�s old-fashioned comfort food, drawn from her family�s recipes, had a solid following among the young and old, attracting Ohio State University students as well as neighborhood loyalists who lined up to get in.

She often fed free meals to those who had lost their jobs or had suffered tragedy, although she priced her meals � including a drink � at about $5.

At Thanksgiving, said her sister, Connie Davis, she�d give away nearly 1,000 meals to the needy and provided free meals to local firefighters as well.

�There�s not another woman on earth like her,� said Davis, also of Clintonville.

�She�d give you the shirt off her back and try to borrow one from someone else so you had a clean one.�

Davis said she and her sister grew up in the family home on Crestview Road and went to Crestview Presbyterian Church nearby. King graduated from the former North High School in 1966 and went to work for Ohio Bell.

�But she decided she didn�t like being told what to do, so she bought the restaurant,� Davis said.

The community�s love affair with King became apparent in 2009 when she announced that she was closing the restaurant because of financial problems and health issues.

Former customers raised about $15,000 to help out, and eight months later the restaurant reopened with her niece, Sheila Davis Hahn, at the helm.

Southwick-Good & Fortkamp Funeral Chapel, across the street from the restaurant, is handling funeral arrangements, which will be completed today, Davis said.

King�s obituary, which she wrote before her death, sums up her life at Nancy�s in one telling sentence, her sister said.

�How many people work at a job they love for 38 years?�

kgray@dispatch.com