She loved to throw parties and help friends and strangers. Her restaurant customers became extended family. Her employees were exceptionally loyal.

All that came to an abrupt end on Saturday night when Kathleen Sellas, owner of the popular Gazebo Cafe, died when the sport-utility vehicle she was driving spun off Interstate 95 in Boynton Beach.

Sellas, 49, was thrown from a Range Rover after it rolled several times on the shoulder, leading authorities to speculate she was not wearing a seat belt.

Her son, Paul Sellas, said the spin out may have been an overcorrection to a vehicle in a blind spot that she initially failed to see as she changed lanes.

On Sunday, as word spread of her death, relatives, friends and employees mourned at Kathleen Sellas’ home, greeting each other with tears and hugs.

“If someone needed a mortgage [payment) paid or a kid needed a pair of shoes, she’d be there,” said Marge Grafton, a close friend from Delray Beach. “She was the kindest person I [ever) met.”

Besides Continental cuisine featuring fish and pasta, Sellas offered a festive atmosphere that kept patrons returning to the 150-seat restaurant just north of Spanish River Boulevard off North Federal Highway.

There were special holiday lights during the Christmas-New Year’s season and green beer and wine for St. Patrick’s Day.

As patrons got to know Sellas, they say they became friends. Her children and their children became friends, too.

Special events at the restaurant were routine. Waves of IBM employees chose the location for farewell dinners in 1988 when the computer manufacturer offered lump-sum payouts to trim employee ranks in Boca Raton.

In recent years, her waiters, waitresses, chefs and other restaurant employees participated in bike-a-thons aimed at raising dollars for Barton’s Boosters, a group that helps underprivileged children. Sellas moved to Boca Raton more than 15 years ago after she and her then-husband, William, decided to sell their Rosemont, Ill., restaurant, Cafe LaCave, Paul Sellas said. They were enticed by the warmer weather, he said.

The Sellas’ divorced, but Kathleen Sellas kept on running the business with the help of employees who moved south with them. New employees stuck, too.

When Kathleen Sellas decided four years ago to open a second restaurant, Vasili’s Gazebo on Indiantown Road in Jupiter, she chose a 10-year Boca Raton employee to operate it.

“She trusted me … she let me run the business,” said the maitre d’, who would only identify himself as Gerard.

Paul Sellas, 25, the oldest of Kathleen Sellas’ four children, and assistant chef at Vasili’s Gazebo, said his mother was unexhaustible, whether it was working or helping people.

It was her custom to work at the Boca Raton restaurant on Saturday, then head north to the Jupiter restaurant.

“She was heading to the Jupiter restaurant when she had the accident last night,” Paul Sellas said on Sunday.

Driving a daughter’s 1991 Range Rover, Kathleen Sellas was in the right lane heading north on I-95 when the fatal accident occurred, half a mile south of Woolbright Road, at 8:10 p.m., according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Besides her son, Kathleen Sellas is survived by three daughters, Nicki Sellas, 21, Anna Sellas, 22, and Diana Nolten, 23.

Funeral plans were incomplete on Sunday. Kathleen Sellas was a member of Ascension Catholic Church in Boca Raton.