Ex-mayor's wife was child-care provider

9/25/2004

WAYNE, Ohio - Nancy David, 52, a child-care provider who helped in her husband's recovery after he was struck by a drunken driver and seriously injured in 2003, died Wednesday in Wood County Hospital.

She had an appendectomy 2 1/2 weeks ago and died of a blood clot in her lungs after collapsing at home, her cousin Beth Fritz said.

Mrs. David's husband, Jim, was mayor of Wayne for 16 years.

"She really enjoyed being in that role of the mayor's wife and getting to know the people," Mrs. Fritz said.

He did not seek re-election in 2003 because of the aftereffects of the accident, which crushed his left leg, elbow, and hand. She was his full-time caregiver.

"She never complained about it. She knew that she had to do it," Mrs. Fritz said. "It was a long road, and they were getting into a good routine with things."

Since the 1980s, Mrs. David cared for children in her home, from infants to early teens - sometimes more than a dozen at a time. Some children stayed the day. Others stayed only an hour before and after school.

"She loved having them around the house," Mrs. Fritz said. "She actually was baby-sitting a second generation."

Mrs. David grew up in Bradner, Ohio, and was a 1970 graduate of Lakota High School. She worked several years at the South Main Street Frisch's in Bowling Green.

She was a member of Wayne United Methodist Church.

Surviving are her husband, Jim, whom she married Sept. 23, 1978; mother, Lois Ruble; daughters, Stephanie Ann Morrison, Jennifer Lynn, and Ann Marie David; brothers, Chuck, Edward "Eric," Jr., and Garry Ruble, and sister, Bobbie Harden.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday in the Barndt Mortuary, Wayne, where the body will be after 2 p.m. tomorrow.

The family suggests tributes to the Wayne Volunteer Fire Department or Bradner EMS.