Annette Oberlander Willows hasn’t been able to emotionally leave the hospital room where her best friend and reality TV star, Frank Fritz, died a year ago.
She’s still there — spiritually. Around that bed, amongst the friends that grew to be Fritz’s family. Holding his hand as the complications from a stroke that exacerbated his severe Crohn’s disease finally became too much for his body.
“I won’t be able to get any peace until we can bury Frank and his mother,” both of whom were cremated, Willows says.
“You can’t move forward when he’s not been laid to rest.”
And he can’t be buried, she said, while Fritz’s will is being contested in court by his birth father, Bill Fritz.
Frank Fritz, former co-star of “American Pickers.”
In February, Bill Fritz, who lives in Texas, filed a petition to set aside “American Pickers” co-host Frank Fritz’s last testament and have a jury determine what should be done with his son’s estate.
The probate case, including the will, has been sealed by an Iowa judge, so details of Fritz’s assets — which some estimates value at nearly $6 million — and other filings haven’t been made public.
A trial is set for November 2026, which means a final determination may not come until more than two years after Fritz’s death. A long time to wait until friends can “put an end to this agony,” Willows says.
“It just drags you down. The whole situation has a lot of weight on it,” she says. “And during this time when you should be celebrating his life, you’re stuck. Literally stuck.”
Gut instincts, curiosity and a full tank of gas: Who was Frank Fritz?
Fritz — known for his dark beard, quick smile and deep passion for vintage motorcycles — rocketed to fame with his friend and fellow Iowan, Mike Wolfe, when their antique-hunting show “American Pickers” premiered on the History Channel in 2010.
The show diverted from the classic “Antiques Roadshow” format of shooting on a controlled set and featuring expert commentary.
Instead, Wolfe and Fritz leaned on their streetwise knowledge and razor-sharp gut instincts as they traveled backroads and small-town Main Streets looking for stories in equal measure to “picks,” as fans call the objects they buy.
Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz with a memory jug, one of their favorite finds
“Before the show, we would take off together to places we never knew existed with no destination in mind and just the shared passion to discover something interesting and historic,” Wolfe wrote in an Instagram post honoring Fritz just after his death.
“Who would have ever dreamed we would share the cockpit of a white cargo van in front of millions of people interested in our adventures.”
Their folksy chemistry created reality show gold, making the two friends into celebrities with the thrifting and DIY sets and “Pickers” into a ratings and rerun juggernaut.
The pair were truly unexpected stars when the show hit, plunked from obscurity along the Mississippi River. But Fritz was the same on-camera as he was off, Wolfe wrote. Nothing put-on, ever. Nothing inauthentic.
“Frank had a way of reaching the hearts of so many by just being himself,” Wolfe wrote.
Wolfe declined to talk about Fritz through a representative for this story.
A nagging back injury forced Fritz to leave the show just before the COVID-19 pandemic. His exit marked the beginning of a series of physical and medical issues, including a stroke in 2022, that would eventually lead to his death at age 60 in September 2024.
Estrangement and competency: What’s wrong with Frank Fritz’s will?
At issue in the will contest is, first, who was closest to Fritz and would have understood his final desires best: his father or his best friends? Each side believes they are the right arbiter.
And, second, whether Fritz was in sufficient command of his faculties to understand and sign a will after he had a stroke — one which was debilitating enough that he was initially placed into guardianship by the court.
In July 2022, Fritz was found unresponsive on the floor of his Davenport-area home and later was determined to have had a stroke. His recovery was rocky in the following months, including hospitalizations for seizures, high blood pressure and pneumonia-like symptoms, according to 911 tapes published by a British tabloid.
An emergency guardian was approved by the courts a few weeks later because, as filings state, “Mr. Fritz’s decision-making capacity is so impaired that he is unable to care for his own safety, or to provide for necessities such as food, shelter, clothing or medical care.”
He is also “unable to make, communicate or carry out important decisions concerning his own financial affairs.”
Many documents in the guardianship case are sealed. However, a public care plan filed in 2022 specified that Fritz did not have a living will.
When the guardian filed what would be his final report about two years later, Fritz was now listed as having a will.
In the intervening time, friends previously told the Register, Fritz had recovered and was in control of his faculties and thoughts. He had been well enough to enjoy a visit from Wolfe ― the pair’s first meetup in three years ― as well as a night out with friends just before the holidays.
But a judge’s finding that Fritz “does not have the capacity to execute any legal documents on his own behalf” is key evidence that the will — which was put together in 2023, about eight months after guardianship went into place — should be set aside, Bill Fritz’s lawyer, Cory Gourley, previously told the Register.
There are also logistical issues with the document, including that it is not properly signed or properly witnessed, Gourley said previously.
Gourley did not respond to a request for updates on the case. And, citing the lawsuit, Willows declined to add any more information than what has already been made public.
One year later: The journey toward healing continues
While the will is worked out in the courts and the celebration of life is on hold, Fritz’s friends have tried to find ways to preserve and salute his memory.
They hosted a tribute for the star in May, during which acquaintances of Fritz’s from as early as grade school and on up through the many eras of his life converged on Savanna, Illinois.
The gathered shared stories, reveled in memories and dedicated the Frank Fritz Man Cave, an antique-motorcycle themed bar and small movie theater in the building next to Fritz’s old store.
Eventually, the Man Cave’s owner hopes to replay old episodes of “American Pickers” in the theater in honor of Fritz, and maybe even organize a museum or memorial in the antique hunter’s former retail space, which he also owns.
Fritz liked to keep his friendships separate, Willow says, so many of his dearests met for the first time that weekend. They shared a lot of belly laughs, she says, but an equal dose of heavy tears, too.
“A lot of friends wanted to know what his ending looked like, and it was real peaceful. And they sought comfort out of that,” Willows says.
“It was kind of like one step in the healing,” she adds. “But then you step backwards by everything else that’s going on.”
More: How Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz weathered fame, public rifts to create a ‘picker’ empire
She’s planning to spend the one-year anniversary of Fritz’s death at home, quietly.
Fritz was a big personality, to put it mildly, she says. And he liked living life like a vibrating Vegas neon sign, which made him exciting to be around — always. But she’ll miss the more muted side of Fritz.
Day-to-day conversations. Lunches. Watching TV, which they did a lot of in Fritz’s last hospital room.
“He mentioned one day he fulfilled all of his dreams before he passed away. There wasn’t one thing that he wanted to do that he didn’t do,” she says. No bucket list left behind.
Willows takes comfort in that certainty. A fortitudinous blessing as loved ones pursue a legal finality and as she seeks to, hopefully, move forward from his mourning his death to finally commemorating his life.
“It’s hard knowing that Frank is not at peace yet,” she says. “That’s the hardest part.”
Mike Wolfe, left, and Frank Fritz are the stars of the History Channel’s “American Pickers.” Their business is based in LeClaire, Iowa, hometown of columnist Kate Kompas.
Courtney Crowder, the Register’s Iowa Columnist, traverses the state’s 99 counties telling Iowans’ stories. Reach her at ccrowder@dmreg.com or 515-284-8360.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Frank Fritz died 1 year ago. Friends say they ‘can’t move forward’