Missing restaurateur B. Smith reported found in N.Y.

Famed restaurateur and former model B. Smith, who has Alzheimer's and was reported missing on Long Island today, has been found, reports say.

CBS News tweeted it confirmed that Barbara Smith, known professionally as B. Smith, was found in a diner in Manhattan.

The New York ABC affiliate also confirmed it.

It's a hopeful end to an alarming story that broke Wednesday.

Fox News and CBS News reported that Smith was last seen in Southampton, Long Island, at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday, after arriving from New York City on a jitney.

When Smith didn't turn up at her home, her husband and business partner, Dan Gasby, reported her missing. She was said to be wearing a blue sweater, pink shirt, jeans and black sneakers.

The Sag Harbor Express newspaper reported that a local man ran into Gasby about 10 p.m. on Tuesday in Sag Harbor, and he said he was looking for Smith.

Police in Sag Harbor, where she lives, confirmed that there was an open, active missing-person investigation seeking Smith, and asked for the public's help in finding her, but has not responded to the reports that she was found. Smith's office did not immediately return calls.

ABC reported that Smith's daughter was told by the jitney driver that she got off at the Sag Harbor stop, but then, according to unnamed friends, she got back onto the jitney and returned to the city. Someone recognized her at a diner and called it in.

Smith, 65, revealed earlier this year that she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's after years of symptoms such as memory loss and confusion.

She said at the time she was trying to remain positive.

"I think the future's going to be fine," she said. "I'm going to do my best to make it work out for me and for as many people that I can possibly help, too."

Smith, one of the first African-American models to appear on the cover of Mademoiselle, later became an acclaimed restaurateur, designer and decorator.

In 1986, she opened her first restaurant in New York City, and two more followed. Her Washington eatery closed last year after 20 years in business. She went on to become a pioneer in the lifestyle area, an expert in food and home entertaining.

In April, after she and Gasby closed their restaurants; they sold their Central Park West apartment for nearly $6 million and moved to Sag Harbor.

At the time, Gasby joked to the New York Post that they needed a warmer climate, saying, "There's nothing noble about being old in the cold."

The apartment, decorated by the couple, seemed to be worth every penny, according to a USA TODAY feature at Christmas in 2005.

The 2,500-square-foot spread on the 35th floor of a Modernist building "boasts views that are both, as they like to say, town (Seventh Avenue south to Times Square and beyond) and country (to the north, all of Central Park).

"Two honey-hued chairs in their bedroom provide a King Kong perspective on the New Year's Eve ball dropping. In the airy living room, the wheat sectional and espresso club chairs supply scenes of the epicenter of Manhattan Christmas, with ice skaters circling Wollman Rink and horse-drawn carriages along snow-patched paths."