Nancy B's Bakery owner in West Homestead dies

The Pittsburgh cookie table community is a little less sweet today. The city lost Nancy Bertram Runco, owner of Nancy B’s Bakery in West Homestead.

She died at 11:36 p.m. Monday from an infection, according to her son, Michael Runco.

She was 78.

“I was so lucky to work with my mom,” Michael Runco, of Munhall, said through tears, after announcing her death on Facebook. “We had our disagreements at times working in the store, but we loved each other.”

Over the past two years, Nancy Runco hadn’t been at the shop because of the pandemic. She stopped by a few months ago when Netflix was filming a show. Her son invited a few customers who are his mother’s friends to stop.

“She really enjoyed that,” he said. “Our customers become friends. It was such a good day. She came into the bakery and everything was so nice and clean, but I forgot to turn the lights off by the cooler and she said, ‘why are those lights still on?’ That was my mother.”

When the business started, she made every cookie by hand — 130 dozen a day. The store sells 300 dozen walk-ins a day, not counting orders.

“If a cookie wasn’t shaped right, she wouldn’t sell it,” her son said. “She would donate it to the food bank.”

The store did cookie tables for some Steelers players and weddings, and shipped cookies for cookie tables all over the world.

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Michael Runco recalled the time a bride came in about six years ago. She had gotten into a fight with her mother-in-law-to-be and she threw out all the cookies. Nancy and Michael Runco worked all night to make 250 dozen.

“My mom felt bad,” he said. “The bride needed a cookie table.”

“I feel like a part of me is gone,” Michael Runco said. “She was my buddy.”

She called him Monday and said, “I need you.” He took her to Jefferson Hospital.

He said he has received hundreds of calls and text messages and emails since her passing.

“I didn’t have a dad in my life … she was my only parent,” he said. “It sucks. It does help to hear all the stories from people about my mom. That makes me feel a little better. I am so proud to be her son.”

He said he urged her to stay away from the store during the pandemic to keep her healthy.

“It all happened so fast,” he said of her death.

In the hospital, she was asking about some of the workers and wanted to make sure the business was stable.

“She always worried about everyone else,” he said. “She wanted to make people happy and cookies make people happy. Cookies were a big part of her life. I owe her. Everything I have is because of her.”

He said it’s true that Snoop Dogg, as well as other celebrities, liked Nancy B’s cookies. The shop often makes cookie trays for movie sets when films are being shot here. It also collaborated with Pittsburgh South Side’s Page Dairy Mart on a sundae.

Marjorie Page Prusia, owner of Page Dairy Mart, said they’ve been collaborating with Nancy B’s for 10 years. Prusia said it truly was a mother-son family business that was about more than really, really, really good chocolate chip cookies. It was about really, really, really good people, she said.

“Nancy had such a good heart,” Prusia said. “I saw her son’s post on Facebook, and I was not expecting to see that news. When you work with wonderful people such as Nancy B and her son you build a relationship. You form a bond. This is devastating.”

Michael Runco said former Steelers players Joey Porter and Antonio Brown love the cookies. Brown often sat down in the shop for lunch, Michael Runco said.

The Steelers have presented Runco with game balls.

“She was a huge Steelers fan,” her son said.

Runco started the business 38 years ago. She learned to bake at a bakery in Braddock. She began with cakes and pies and cookies but decided to specialize in cookies.

The name came from a cartoon that said “All Aboard Nancy B.”

One of Runco’s passions was to send cookies to troops. The shop sends six boxes a week to servicemen and women who are deployed. Her brother was in the Air Force. She grew up in Lawrenceville. Her father was a chocolatier.

“I was never good at baking,” Michael Runco said. “I was the guy who cleaned the mixers and the bowls. Then it became my thing. I learned from my mom … I learned from the best.”

He said they don’t plan to close for days because his mother would not want that.

“She would say the customers need comforting,” he said. “She would say the customers need cookies.”

Words inspired by a true cookie lady.

George Irvin Green Funeral Home in Munhall is handling the arrangements.

A memorial mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday in Blessed Holy Trinity, Holy Angels Church in Hays.