As the youngest of six children growing up on Parkview Avenue in South Oakland, James Regis Connors came into the world as "Baby Jim." Later, his habit of wearing spit-shined demi-boots to lengthen his 5-foot-7¹/₂-inch frame earned him the nickname "Cleatie."

But it was the name "Uncle Jimmy" that stuck and adorned Uncle Jimmy's Tavern, the Semple Street bar he opened more than 15 years ago in South Oakland.

"His lifelong dream was to own a bar," said his wife, Susan. "He just had that personality, that special touch."

Mr. Connors died of lung cancer Monday at his home in Greenfield. He was 73.

He was so renowned as a neighborhood "nice guy" that his wife would use it against him when they argued, asking how he could quarrel with her when everybody else knew him as "such a nice guy."

He'd usually respond by saying he loved her, often singing the line "I love you ba-by" from the Frankie Valli song, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You."

His gregarious, life-of-the-party personality was part of what made Mr. Connors perfectly suited to life as a bar owner, said his wife.

But it was also his generosity that drew both university students and longtime Greenfield and Oakland residents to Uncle Jimmy's Tavern. He never said a bad word about anyone, she said, and was always willing to help someone in need.

"He was the best bank in South Oakland," said Susan Connors. "He loaned money to people interest-free, some of which never came back."

And, when he needed to, the man who never topped 134 pounds could keep order in the bar.

"He was an Oakland tough guy," said his wife, who will continue to run the bar along with her grandson, Michael. "As little as he was, he had the power if there was ever a fight to come out on top, no matter how big the guy was."

Before opening the bar, Mr. Connors worked as a bartender and as the night auditor at the Hotel Webster Hall. He also served in the Army during the Korean War, working as a cryptographer in Japan.

More than a decade later, the family responded to a request in The Pitt News from a Japanese exchange student looking for a place to live.

When the student came over to their house for an interview, Mr. Connors greeted him in fluent Japanese. The student ended up living at the Connors' house for six years.

When he wasn't working at the bar, Mr. Connors loved to take gambling trips to Las Vegas and was an avid supporter of youth sports in Greenfield, particularly anything involving his grandson, Michael.

After he was diagnosed with lung cancer in December, he decided to live out his remaining time at home, with only brief radiation treatment and no chemotherapy.

"It was like Frank Sinatra," said his wife. "He did it his way."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Connors is survived by two sons, John James, of Lincoln Place, and Dennis Woolf, of Miami; two daughters, D.J. Pavucsko, of Baldwin Borough, and Carolyn Connors-Pilewski, of Whitehall; a sister, Anna Gert Stone, of Maryland; twin brothers, Frank and Charles, of Bethel Park; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be today from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at John N. Elachko Funeral Home, 3447 Dawson St., and a Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Regis Church, both in Oakland.