EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: The Guardian of Dreams

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — There are all kinds of watchdogs in a community. You have the obvious ones like police officers and you also have those who quietly look out for the area they care so much about.  WWAY’s Daniel Seamans introduces us to the Extraordinary Person of the Week.

“Hey y’all. While interviewing the Extraordinary Person of the Week who led the way creating this mural I came across another Extraordinary Person. He passed away from lung cancer before the interview. So we use the words those who knew him well to tell his story.”
-Daniel

“Someone called him like a ghost,” his cousin said. “You look around you don’t see him. Look again and there he is.”
“Dexter was a lovin’ lovin’ man,” said his sister. “He just was a loving loving sweet brother.”
“Some of the best ideas for the mural came from Dexter,” said the creator of the Forest of Dreams Mural.

He was a guardian of dreams at the forest of dreams.

“He lived right now there on that end corner,” Gladys Hardy told Daniel Seamans. “He’d watch form here to here and I’d watch from here to here and if we saw something we didn’t like, we’d pick up the phones all call each other.”

His cousin, Gladys Hardy, knew his guardian ways very well.

“He really loved this area and he protected it.” Gladys said. “He was here. He showed what we call in church, that “Agape Love”. He really showed it because at night sometimes I ‘d forget to cut my garage light off. He’ll say, hey, what are you doing up this time of night. Cut that light out and got to bed. He wouldn’t pull off until I cut that light off. He was such a carrying person.”

His sister knew that protective love, too. “He’s patrolling while everybody is sleeping. He’s out patrolling like a community watchdog,” Ardelia Gause said of her brother.

And creating this beautiful mural together at 10th and Fanning streets on the Northside of Wilmington, his friend, who likened him to an invisible mayor of the neighborhood.

“His idea was to have a legacy tree and this tree had leaves for people who passed away in the neighborhood,” Janna Siegel Robertson said. “This is the tree, a lot of time when I come down to the tree there are people just standing here looking at their loved one.”

Dexter and Janna

Dexter’s legacy is living life after death on the very tree he inspired.

“I know all of us are going to miss him because he just cared about people,” Gladys said. “He cared about the area. He didn’t want the bad boys to take over what people were trying to beautify.”

He was a watchdog who served in the Merchant Marines for decades and soulfully loving the paths he crossed.

“Shelby is just 5 years old now and he just loved lil’ Shelby,” Ardelia said of the friendship he shared with the girl. “I guess because he didn’t have kids of his own.”

Dexter and Shelby

“I don’t know if you’ll find another Dexter James,” Gladys said. “He didn’t bit his tongue. He let you know who he was. I just have to pick up the phone and say “hey what you doing?” He’d say what do you need and there he was. He was one of a kind. One of a kind.”

Dexter James was a guardian of dreams in a community that is home to a forest of dreams.
And it wouldn’t be that much of a surprise to find out he is still watching over it all in his extraordinary way.