Dorothy M. "Dot" Darcangelis was a fixture in her North Side beauty shop for 67 years, administering bobs and beehives, perms and flips to several generations of customers.

Family and her many friends described Mrs. Darcangelis, of Observatory Hill, as warm and gregarious, lively and easy to talk to. She dispensed friendship along with neatly styled coiffures, and so kept a legion of devoted customers coming back to her neighborhood beauty parlor year after year.

Mrs. Darcangelis worked at D'Mar Beaute' Salon on Baytree Street until about two weeks ago, the day before she went into the hospital. She died Thursday at 82.

She knew her customers well, and they knew one another, said LaVerne Wolfe, a longtime friend of Mrs. Darcangelis and possibly her oldest customer. Wolfe's mother first took her to Mrs. Darcangelis' shop when she was 3 years old.

"I've been to other beauty shops, and some places you go it's so cold -- nobody talks," Wolfe said. "There, everybody knows about each other's children, the trips you've taken. It's nice. In this day and age you just don't find that."

Mrs. Darcangelis was born in Hooversville, Somerset County, one of five children of a coal miner who moved the family to Pittsburgh when he took a job in a steel mill. She always wanted to be a hairdresser, and started her beauty career when she was 15 years old.

After dropping out of Sharpsburg High School, she took over Nightingale Beauty Shop at East Ohio Street and Cedar Avenue. The shop was on the second floor above Frank's Cafe, a tavern where her future husband, Adolph Darcangelis, was working as a bartender in his father's business.

"My grandmother was her landlady," said Mrs. Darcangelis' daughter, Linda Walker of Woodbridge, Va. "She fixed her up with my father. She liked the fact that she was a nice Italian girl for her nice Italian boy."

Mrs. Darcangelis and her husband, who was known as "Duffy," ran their businesses at East Ohio and Cedar for many years and became very well-known in the area, said son-in-law Joseph Walker. Duffy Darcangelis was called "the mayor of the North Side," Walker said.

When her daughters were young, Mrs. Darcangelis moved her shop to the basement of the couple's home on Evergreen Road in Observatory Hill. Then D'Mar Beaute' Salon moved to East Street before finally opening on Baytree, where it has stayed for more than 30 years. Many customers followed Mrs. Darcangelis from location to location.

Friends said the couple loved dancing. At least once a week, but more often twice, they would dance at the Elks Lodge in Etna, the North Hills Moose Lodge or other clubs around the city.

"Conga, waltz, fox trot," said Joan Fenicato of Ross, who first met the couple while dancing at the Bloomfield Moose Lodge. "[Duffy] used to tell me he was triple-jointed because of the ways he could move his body. Dotty, too."

Friends and family say the couple were inseparable, going on cruises together and frequently traveling to Las Vegas or Atlantic City, N.J. Mrs. Darcangelis liked to play poker and blackjack in local card clubs.

"She had a real gambling streak," said her son-in-law. "She always claimed she won, that Las Vegas wasn't built on her money."

When her husband died in 1999, Mrs. Darcangelis told friends she had lost her best friend. She never came back to the dances, Fenicato said.

"It hurt her zest for life, because they were so close," said Walker. "She wasn't really ever quite the same after that. But she carried on, and carried on the business."

Mrs. Darcangelis' daughter Sandra Zak, of Reserve, who has worked as a beautician in her mother's shop since high school, will take over running it.

In addition to her daughters, Mrs. Darcangelis is survived by two sisters, Frances DeGregory of Sharpsburg and Mary Ann DeFren of Las Vegas; three grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

A funeral Mass was celebrated yesterday.