Christmas won’t be as bright this holiday season along Raleigh’s city streets.

Dwight Robinett, a taxi cab driver who adorned his Toyota Prius with thousands of Christmas lights, died this month.

Dave Harris, musical director for the Raleigh Ringers musical group, told The News & Observer on Monday that Robinett died this month at WakeMed.

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Robinett, a native of Houston, had retired from the North Carolina Symphony after spending roughly 35 years as the assistant principal trombonist. He was also a recording engineer for many local musical groups, including the Raleigh Ringers, Harris said.

“He was supposed to record for our group Friday night and didn’t show up,” Harris said. “His phone kept going to voicemail. I went by his house and there was no sign of him.”

Harris said he called the police to check on Robinett and learned Monday that Robinett died at WakeMed nine days ago. It’s unclear how he died.

Local cab driver Dwight Robinett spent about 20 hours attaching more than 9,000 LED Christmas lights to his 2014 Toyota Prius Taxi Taxi cab in 2016. Robinett died this month. Travis Long tlong@newsobserver.com

Robinett’s Christmas cab had become well-known in Raleigh, attracting media attention. In a 2016 story by The News & Observer, Robinett said he spent 20 hours attaching about 9,100 lights on his Prius in a grid pattern.





“It’s tricky,” he told The N&O. “You have to get the wires just right so you can open the doors.”

Driving a cab was a second career for Robinett, who took on the job because “he couldn’t sit still,” Harris said. Representatives with Taxi Taxi could not immediately be reached Monday evening.

But Robinett’s great passion was music. He told The N&O in 2016, when he was 66, that he played the trombone for 50 years but had to stop because some dental work made it tough.

“He was doing digital recording,” Harris said. “He was still very involved in music.”

Robinett lived alone and mostly kept to himself, Harris said. So Harris was shocked two years ago when Robinett showed up with his taxi decked out with thousands of Christmas lights.

“He was a to-himself person and that was way out of his character,” Harris said.

Robinett told The N&O that he hung about 4,000 lights on his cab in 2015 because he thought it would be more fun than decorating his house. He decided to double the number of lights the following holiday season because customers enjoyed it.

“Sometimes people want to ride in my cab just for my lights,” he said in the interview. “I just had a lady call me to have me drive her around in my cab to deliver presents.”

Robinett’s efforts to bring holiday cheer will surely be missed.





“A lot of people say, ‘That made me smile. I had a really bad day but that made me happy,’ and that’s a good thing,” Robinett said in the interview. “There’s too much negativity in the world. I’m just trying to make some people smile.”

Robinett’s unexpected death this month left Harris remembering his friend’s brightly colored taxi.

“He lit it up,” Harris said.