UPDATE: Residents Honor the Memory of Ankeny Crossing Guard

It was the least they could do for an Ankeny man authorities said kept schoolchildren safe as they crossed a busy intersection.

The Funke family of Ankeny took a few moments Thursday night to start an impromptu flower memorial at the corner of West First and Southwest School streets to honor the memory of school crossing guard Frank Luttrell.

Luttrell, a crossing guard near  in Ankeny, died Thursday from injuries suffered when he was hit by a pickup truck while working.

“Having five kids in the school district, I appreciate the people who go out of their way to keep them safe,” said Desiree Funke. “We just wanted the family to know that we appreciate him and were thankful for what he did.”

Although Funke never met Luttrell, her daughter, Katie — a seventh-grader at , located near Terrace on First Street — remembered him.

“He helped me cross the street a lot when I was going to my friend’s (house),” Katie said.

By the time the Funkes were done setting up the memorial, others were showing up to drop off flowers and show their support.

A neighbor and friend of Luttrell and his family, who asked that her name  not be used, stopped by with her own family to leave flowers at the roadside memorial. She said she saw Luttrell just this morning before he left for work.

“We chatted with him a lot,” she said through tears. “He would always walk his dog by our house.”

Neighbors Remember a Man Who Loved Kids, Dog and Sinatra

Frank Luttrell loved kids, loved his dog and loved listening to Frank Sinatra. And his neighbors loved him.

Luttrell's next-door neighbors described him as an outgoing man who helped others, smoked a pipe and enjoyed walking his yellow Labrador retriever, Tarzan.

One of his next door neighbors, Richard Whitney, said Luttrell and his wife, Deanna, moved to Ankeny from Texas to be close to their grandchildren. The couple's son lives in the house behind theirs, Whitney said.

"Frank walked their dog, Tarzan, almost every day until the dog pulled him down a couple months ago," Whitney said. "He's 78 years old, but you'd never know it.

"My wife has to go to work really early in the morning. Frank was out really early one morning scooping out our driveway. I said, 'Frank you don't have to be out here chipping out that ice.' He was a real good guy," Whitney said. "He was just a genuinely nice person."

Kristin DeVore, who lives on the other side of the Luttrell's house, also spoke of his friendly nature.

"He smokes a pipe, and I smoke cigarettes, and we'd always be out smoking together," DeVore remembered.

"Frank likes to sing," she said, still remembering his friend as alive, "and he loves Frank Sinatra."