Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Stan Frankowski -- known by "Stas" or "Sluggo" to his friends -- behind the bar at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern in March 1994.

Plant worker, union activist and Bloomfield Bridge Tavern owner Stanley A. Frankowski died Wednesday at 69 at his O'Hara home, following a long struggle with cancer.

Mr. Frankowski, "Stas" or "Sluggo" to his friends, was a union leader and bologna packer at Armour Meat Co. When the plant closed in the early 1980s, he launched a campaign to rally union members to collectively buy and manage it. After enlisting the help of a local political activist, now state Sen. Jim Ferlo, Mr. Frankowski cooked up a spicy way to get the attention of Pittsburgh City Council.

"He was a few months away from pension when [the plant] closed," said Mr. Ferlo. "We were trying to get the city to help the workers buy the plant. So he has this idea -- he has them make a giant kielbasa and we all carried it into the council meeting."

The buyout never happened. Nevertheless, Mr. Frankowski and Mr. Ferlo maintained a friendship that continued to his death.

"To me, he really was a working-class hero," said the senator. "There were three bedrock principles that he lived by: family, ethnic pride and grass-roots unionism. They really molded what he was as a person."

After the buyout plan fell through, Mr. Frankowski took a few classes on entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University with hopes of starting a new life for his family.

Tossing out most of what he learned, he bought a neighborhood nuisance bar, chased the drug dealers out with a baseball bat and hired members of his family to run the place.

Bloomfield Bridge Tavern, at the busy juncture of Liberty Avenue and the Bloomfield Bridge, quickly became a local landmark. Proud of his Polish heritage, although he never visited his ancestral homeland, Mr. Frankowski commissioned murals of famous and not-so-famous Poles on the tavern's broad exterior walls. The city crests of dozens of Polish towns ring the parking lot. Inside, Mr. Frankowski hung a large photo of Polish pope John Paul II and served pierogies, kielbasa, haluski and other Polish delicacies. Bloomfield Bridge Tavern has won numerous awards as home of the best city's Polish food.

Of course, the tavern became a haven for the region's polka bands. Mr. Frankowski reveled in his annual beer chugging, sing-along Dingus Day parties, an unofficial Polish holiday celebrating the end of the Lenten season. Each year he crowned a "King and Queen Pierogie," and more than a half-dozen couples were married inside the homey tavern.

Mr. Frankowski had a soft spot for struggling artists, and the tavern became and continues to be an important entry-level venue for local rock bands. Many of Pittsburgh most popular bands, including Rusted Root and The Clarks, played at the tavern in their infancy. Years before musical concept artists Squonk Opera took their show to the Broadway stage, they took it to the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern.

"That was our first bar gig," said Squonk composer-pianist Jackie Dempsey. "We were so scared because we had no idea what a bar crowd would think of us. But Stan and Bloomfield Bridge Tavern took a chance on us, and we never forgot that. It's a really important stage for local musicians because Stan never cared so much whether the shows make money. He just wanted to help you out."

The mutual respect continued after the group's Broadway run led to invitations to play important arts festivals in Europe, Asia and across North America. Mr. Frankowski is prominently featured in "Squonk-umentary," a film about Squonk Opera by New York director Peggy Sutton, which will premiere in Pittsburgh on Nov. 4 at the Melwood Screening Room as part of the Three Rivers Film Festival.

"The timing of [Mr. Frankowski's] death is very disappointing," said Ms. Sutton. "He never got to see the movie. When we screen it in New York, audiences always love him. He comes across as very genuine, very Pittsburgh."

"He liked to talk about business and hated to pay retail for anything," said his son Scott Frankowski. "But he had this soft side. Somebody didn't have any money to eat, he'd make them sweep the floor and give 'em a Polish platter."

Mr. Frankowski was a member of the Pittsburgh chapter of the American-Polish Council. He served as an O'Hara councilman, and for 10 years was leader of O'Hara Boy Scout Troop 174.

Instead of burial, Mr. Frankowski chose to donate his body to the University of Pittsburgh for cancer research.

"Even going out, he wants to help somebody," said Mr. Ferlo.

Mr. Frankowski is survived by his wife of 46 years, Nancy Louise Frankowski, of O'Hara; sons Scott and Karl Frankowski, of O'Hara; son Steven Frankowski, of Richland; and daughter Nancy King of Johnson City, Tenn. The family suggests donations to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. next Saturday at St. Joseph Parish, 330 Dorseyville Road, O'Hara. A wake will follow at Bloomfield Bridge Tavern.