‘He was the perfect dog’: How Frank stole hearts in Danbury
It was a muggy afternoon in mid-October when Trish Williamson’s eyes welled up at the Dollar General.
Williamson, 54, works at the discount store off 5th Street in Danbury. After more than a decade on the job, she knows the daily demands and long shifts well. But lately, her personal life weighed heavy: Her mother and brother died recently, and now her father was extremely ill.
Reflecting on the last few months, her emotions overwhelmed her, and she needed some air. As soon as she walked outside, a familiar white and brown spotted face with piercing blue eyes was waiting for her: Frank, the Danbury dog.
Frank, a 5-year-old Catahoula Cur mutt, had become a bona fide celebrity in Danbury, population 1,201, about an hour south of Houston in Brazoria County. His daily escapades around town, including his seemingly miraculous knack for showing up at the doorsteps of pandemic-weary residents just when they needed him most, warmed the hearts of hundreds.
Frank started to show up at the Dollar General regularly after Williamson’s mother and brother died. “Every time I cry Frank shows up,” she said. “And it fills that emptiness. He fills my emptiness.”
He visited her at least four days a week. Some days they would spend her lunch hour on the side of the store. Other days he would wait outside the front door, keeping guard while enjoying friendly pats from customers. For Williamson and much of Danbury, Frank served as a bright light of love and comfort during these dark days of pandemic loneliness and grief.
Within months though, Frank also served as a reminder of just how fleeting life really is.
Frank’s owner, Valerie Simpson, first saw him about two years ago when a few teenagers on bikes
were trying to find him a home while circling the Danbury gas station everyone just calls “the food mart.”
Simpson, 37, had just gotten off of work. She was tired. She had to get home to her then 5year-old daughter. But they were insistent. Couldn’t she offer him a place to sleep?
She caved, and Frank became hers. But he could not be contained. Within weeks, Frank was regularly escaping Simpson’s yard and making his daily rounds: the Dollar General, the Main Street Steakhouse and Bar (where he would get plenty of leftovers), the city park, the food mart, St. Anthony’s Catholic Church for Bible study and snacks.
He crashed a backyard wedding and had been known to work the carpool line at the elementary school, showing up right on time for pickup.
A local celebrity
The small town quickly took notice of Frank’s adventures. In March at the start of the pandemic, residents created a Facebook page to share their Frank sightings.
By year’s end, the page had followers all over the country, from Louisiana to Florida, wanting to know who Frank visited that day, or checking to see if he was back home safe on cold and rainy days.
“Before you knew it, he is the town dog, everybody knows him, and everyone wants him to be the mayor,” Simpson said.
She met her boyfriend and father of her second child, Jarred, one night while out searching for Frank.
It was after dark, and Frank still wasn’t home, so she stopped by one of his favorite spots, the steakhouse. The restaurant was mostly empty except for one man who was sitting alone at the bar.
“I sat down next to him and drank a beer, and it was just sort of history from there,” Simpson said. She looked down at her then-nine-month pregnant belly, stroking it and laughed: “Looking for freaking Frank.”
She named her baby girl Fallon. F, for Frank, she said.
Stacey Phillips Matheson, 56, had just lost her father the first time she saw Frank. George Phillips was a community figure in Danbury before he died of pneumonia complications from COVID-19 at age 75.
He and his wife, Anne, moved to Danbury 20 years ago after retiring from their mobile home business in Baytown.
Over the last two decades, he entrenched himself in the community — serving on city council, in the Danbury ISD school system, in rotary and civic clubs, the library association.
He died Nov. 21 after spending two weeks in the hospital.
An avid volunteer, Phillips helped decorate the town park at Christmas.
Every year, they looked forward to the Christmas light arches that would line Avenue G where his family lived. It was just a few PVC pipes lined with alternating red and white lights that he had placed down the street for cars to drive under.
Days after her father’s funeral, Matheson was turning onto her parents’ street when she noticed a few neighbors were in their yard. They had gotten the arches out and were setting them up and down the road.
As she pulled into the driveway, her eyes welling up, her heart stopped when she saw Frank sitting at her parents’ doorstep. He was watching peacefully as the neighbors strung up her father’s lights. She took it as a sign.
“Angels appear in different forms,” Matheson said. “It’s up to us to realize the goodness of everything around us.”
“Angels appear in different forms. It’s up to us to realize the goodness of everything around us.”
Stacey Phillips Matheson
Saying goodbye
It’s this goodness a Houston Chronicle reporter and photographer planned to document with a visit to Danbury on Wednesday — until the text arrived the day before from Simpson, Frank’s owner.
“Frank was hit by a car yesterday evening,” it read.
Frank died early Tuesday after being accidentally struck by the vehicle. His injuries were extensive and required surgery. He was suffering, so Simpson made the difficult decision to ease his pain and let him go.
Danbury is devastated over the loss of their good dog. But as tragic as his end was, Frank’s story continues to inspire. After news of his passing was shared with his Facebook community, tributes from residents and supporters from throughout the country poured in.
“He was an earthly angel and now he is a heavenly angel watching over everyone,” one woman wrote. “God Bless Frank’s family and Danbury family.”
“My heart is broken, and as I sit here and cry, I can’t imagine (the) sadness in Danbury today, and especially his family,” another woman wrote. “We looked all the time, every time, we went to town. Frank was a legend. He will be missed by all.”
“Frank will forever hold a place in our hearts,” wrote another. “We will remember his beautiful blue eyes and his gentle personality.
“He was the perfect dog.” Frank’s body will be cremated. Simpson said she plans to spread his ashes around Danbury.