I have so many memories with my dear friend Frank.  From our college days when he rode around in his GTO and took my best friend off as his wife, to our more recent years checking up on each other and reminiscing.  Fun times were had on sailing adventures (which David already described), visits to Colorado, and when he helped me pick up my new RV and taught me how to drive it back to Florida from Colorado…. Who would be better than Frank at that!   We comforted each other through life’s ups and downs, and all along the way trusted each other to be there with an understanding and trusting ear.  We had a special bond.  I can still hear Frank’s wonderful Plant City accent talking to me.  I was so fortunate to get to speak to him the day before he passed.  I will miss him.

We're are so sorry to hear of Franks passing. He was our first cousin, and although we didn't see him often, we really enjoyed our times together. 
Our condolences go out to his family and loved ones. He was a very special person to us.
Susan Tregone Johnson 
Claire Tregone

Frank and I once thought it was a good idea to help a friend deliver his 20 something foot fishing boat from Fort Lauderdale to the Turks and Caicos. A 600 mile journey! This was an open boat with two 200 hp outboard motors and only two seats so one of us had to stand the whole time. Our first night out on the way to the Bahamas there were 20 knot winds and six or 7 foot seas. When we arrived in the Bahamas, the dock master was amazed that we had crossed in that weather and such a small boat. 
There were many misadventures on that trip. At one point we were bobbing up and down in the ocean with both of our engines out.  We had a satellite phone that no one knew how to use. I finally was able to call the Bahamas air sea and rescue. When they answered, it was from a dentist office in Nassau that was covering for them during lunch! They asked a freight ship to be on the lookout for us. On another night, we use our radio to get a native on some small island to come pick us up. He took us to the far end of the island going 60 miles an hour while we sat in the back of his pick up truck.  When we arrived at the hotel it was still under construction with no landscaping. The only person at the hotel was a pregnant lady who was asleep at the front desk. We were the only people at the hotel. When we got to our rooms, everyone in the hotel had to watch the same channel on the satellite TV. Amazingly,  the TV was tuned to a pornographic channel. We were delighted!
After a week out at sea, we arrived in the Turks and Caicos’s. Our boat was immediately impounded by customs as our friend had not gotten the right permits. We took our things off the boat and went to a nearby restaurant where we met Susan and our friends’s wife. At the table next to us in the restaurant sat Dick Clark of American bandstand fame. It was so cool getting to meet him and a fitting end to a bizarre journey.
I feel so blessed to have had Frank in my life and will miss him dearly.

Frank, his baby brother and I went on many mountain biking trips in the west. I once took Frank and Allen to Crested Butte to ride some advanced single track trails. At the time, Frank and Allen were beginning mountain bikers. I never saw two guys fall more times from a mountain bike without actually hurting themselves. They were pretty amazing.
When it came to mountain biking, Frank and Allen were always very competitive with each other. It would make Frank so mad when Allen would get the best of him. I guess Alan was justified in giving his big brother a little payback every now and again.

Once while skiing in Aspen, Frank and I thought it would be a good idea to take his little brother Allen down a double black diamond ski run after a huge snowstorm. Allen was a beginning skier. This did not go well for Allen! It took Allen well over an hour to fall down the run. He fell every time he tried to turn. He was totally exhausted, lost his ski hat and was totally encrusted with snow. He looked like Mr. Potato Head caught in a snowstorm. Frank and I never tired of laughing about that.

When our daughter Lily was two years old, we went sailing with Frank in the Bahamas. Sometimes sailing with Frank was like sailing with Captain Bly. Lots of rules to follow! After a week I had had enough. When Susan and Frank took the dinghy to go lobster hunting, I took off Lily’s diaper and let her pee all over Frank’s cock pit. It was very cathartic for me.
Frank once picked Susan and I up in his sailboat in Key West on a cold January day. We were going to sail to Cuba. It was highly illegal at the time for any American or American boat to go to Cuba. Frank knew some guy who knew some guy who worked on the dock in Havana that might get us into Cuba. What could possibly go wrong?

A life of adventure with my dear friend, Frank Henderson (Part 1)
Frank came into my life when I started to date my ex-wife around 1979. Frank was part of the package as he and Susan had gone to college together. Frank and I became fast friends. To me, Frank was a man’s man in the best sense of the word. He was loyal, capable, fearless, always up for an adventure and in a very endearing way to me, a work in progress.
During the last couple of years, I would talk to Frank at least once a month. Even though he was in failing health, he would always light up when we reminisced and laughed about our many adventures and misadventures.
One of our first adventures was bareboating a sailboat in the Virgin Islands with a group of our Aspen friends. It was a couples trip, except for Captain Frank, who was solo. One of my friends, Ken, was uncomfortable being around water and uncomfortable that Captain Frank would be hitting on his girlfriend Lou. Picture Ken as a long-haired, Charlie Manson and Lou as Squeaky Fromme. Ken would sit in the cockpit of the sailboat and try to stare holes into Frank with his eyes. After a couple of days, Frank told Ken that if he could not be useful, he should go below deck. Amazingly, Ken followed Captain Frank’s order and sat below deck staring back up at Frank. Meanwhile, Lou delighted in telling Frank that while she was on Outward Bound she once went 17 days without taking a bath. She told Frank that she really got into her body odor. This in turn freaked Captain Frank out. We laughed about this for the rest of our lives.
David Melton

Frank will be missed!  Always had a great outlook and perspective on life and was a survivor in so many ways.
Rest in peace dear friend 
Dee Warren Dean

OBITUARY

Frank Martin Henderson Jr.

February 27, 1946 – April 20, 2025

Blount & Curry Life Event Center

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