Nancy Packo Horvath of the Birmingham neighborhood of East Toledo, a leading Toledo businesswoman and community leader, died Wednesday, April 23, 2003 in the Hospice Center of Northwest Ohio. She was 70 years old. Nancy was the retired part-owner of Tony Packo's Restaurant and Food Co.,which was started by her father, the restaurant's namesake, in 1932. With her father's illness in 1962, she became full-time manager of the popular restaurant. A year later, upon her father's death, she assumed full responsibility for operation of the restaurant, often recalling her promise to her father that she would always take care of the family. One night as she sat in the quiet of the closed restaurant, she got an idea for refurbishing Tony Packos. "Let's go backwards," she thought, and she added antiques, Tiffany-style lamps, and a Dixieland band known as the Cake Walkin' Jass Band. Under her management and promotional creativity, the restaurant grew not only into a popular local eatery with four locations, but became nationally known. In 1972, Nancy invited actor Burt Reynolds, who was playing in The Rainmaker,to dine at Tony Packo's. "Well, he's got to eat somewhere and our food is great," she said. After she took a letter and one of the band's albums to the hotel, he showed up with members of the cast and signed a hot-dog bun, a tradition that continues today with celebrities, presidential candidates, and other luminaries being asked to sign buns. Recently,Packo's was added to the "Believe It Or Not" by Ripley because of the more than 1,000 signed buns that are in the four Packo restaurants. In 1976, the restaurant made national television when actor Jamie Farr said in a M*A*S*H episode, "If you're ever in Toledo, Ohio, on the Hungarian side of town, Tony Packo's got the greatest Hungarian hot dogs. Thirty five cents When Nancy called to thank him, they talked about how much the cast would enjoy a Tony Packo party and she shipped two coolers full of frozen hot dogs, sauce, and pickles to the chef at Twentieth Century Fox. "Good luck can happen to anyone," she said, "but you need to develop more good fortune through planning." As a result, Packo's was written into five subsequent M*A*S*H episodes, each followed by a "Packo Party," that was shipped from Toledo. Nancy took her father's business to a new level in the 1970s by beginning what became the Tony Packo Food Company. She started by packaging Tony Packo's Pickles and Peppers, using her father's recipe and jar labels designed by her nephew, Mark Packo, and selling them in grocery stores. The line grew to include several products, among them Tony Packo's Hot-Dog Sauce, salsa, and Brittany Tomatoes, named for her granddaughter, Brittany Horvath. The restaurant's fame even reached into space. In 1997, astronaut Donald Thomas fell in love with the Packo hot-dog sauce and asked to take some with him on the Space Shuttle flight that April. After the flight was cut short after four days because of mechanical problems, Dr.Thomas requested more sauce for the second flight in July. Nancy readily supplied the sauce and enjoyed telling people "Our sauce is out of this world." Nancy possessed a rare and wonderful quick wit which surfaced in most conversations and was anticipated and appreciated by friends. Nancy will be remembered for the genuine friendship she extended to people in all walks of live. Her caring and interest in others also was far reaching but her first devotion was to her family. She especially treasured her relationship with her granddaughter,Brittany. Her lifetime commitment was to the family businesses and to her Hungarian heritage. Nancy remained loyal to Birmingham, Toledo's Hungarian community, where she lived all her life and had no desire to live anywhere else.Her dedication to the family business and a determination to preserve the Hungarian food traditions established by her father were frequently expressed in creative promotions. Nancy's lifetime business zeal account largely for Packo's food enterprises being respected nationally in addition to being a main northwest Ohio attraction. Apart from her professional life, she also lectured frequently on Hungarian culture and collected Hungarian art. She also traveled extensively and recalled Budapest as her favorite city outside Toledo and her beloved Birmingham neighborhood. Nancy's devotion to and interest in her community, particularly in East Toledo's Birmingham neighborhood, where she lived, were reflected in the many honors she received and organizations in which she was involved. Most recently, in October of 2002, she received the Ohio Business and Professional Women of Ohio's Woman of Excellence Award during National Business Women's Week. She also received the Pacesetter Award for Manufacturing from the Roundtable for Women in Food Service in 1984, was inducted into the Birmingham Hall of Fame in 1988, and was named a "Woman of Toledo" by the St. Vincent Guild in 1980. She was past president of Northwest Ohio Restaurant Association and a member of the National and Ohio State restaurant associations. She took great pride in working on the Civic Center Hall of Fame committee. Nancy also was a member of the board of trustees of the Toledo-Lucas County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc., Greater Toledo Office of Tourism and Conventions advisory committee, the Toledo Convention Center building committee, and the board of trustees of the Greater Toledo Marketing Group. She was a member of the Toledo Opera Guild, Toledo Symphony Women's League, Toledo Museum of Art President's Council, March of Dimes, Birmingham Neighborhood Coalition, and Hungarian Club of Toledo. Surviving are her son, Robin, and his wife, Terrie; brother, Tony Packo, Jr.; granddaughter, Brittany, and special friends, her sister in law, Bess Packo, Mary Alice Powell and Mary Sue Timar. Nancy was preceded in death by her parents, Rose Galayda Packo and Tony Packo; infant sister, Rosalyn, and brother, Robert. Visitation will be private. Family and friends are asked to participate in a Mass of Christian Burial to be celebrated on Friday, April 25, 2003 in St. Stephen Catholic Church at 10:30 a.m. with Fr. Al Ceranowski and Fr. Doug Garand celebrating. Private interment will take place in Calvary Cemetery. Arrangements are being handled by the Eggleston-Meinert Funeral Homes, Kinsey Birmingham Chapel. The family asks that memorial contributions be made to St. Stephens School Building Fund or Hospice of Northwest Ohio. Visitation: Visitation Times Private