Art Blakey Jr. lived the last few days of his life as he’d lived most every day of his 83 years: surrounded by community members.

The long-time Minnesota State Fair police chief and Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy passed away peacefully Saturday morning in his St. Paul home, just blocks from where he’d grown up, his daughter Brooke Blakey said.

She described the last week at his home as “a revolving door of people coming by from every walk of life to pay their respects.”

Blakey served the community for 52 years and only hung up his hat last year when he retired as police chief of the Minnesota State Fair. He was the first African-American sworn officer in the Ramsey County sheriff’s office.

As word spread of his passing, friends, neighbors and co-workers took to social media to tell how Blakey had touched their lives.

Ramsey County Sheriff Jack Serier posted that it was “a very sad day for us at the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office. He has been a mentor to many in our agency and will be greatly missed by us.”

Brooke Blakey wasn’t surprised by the community’s response.

“His family was his pride and joy,” she said. “But we have always shared him. He has always had a huge extended family — his fair family, his Ramsey County family, his community. That’s where he felt most at home.”

RONDO BABY

Blakey was born Jan. 24, 1935, to Arthur Blakey Sr. and Johnnie Mae Butler in Yankton, S.D., a town on the Missouri River, just north of the Nebraska border.

He was 5 years old when he, his parents and his younger sister Wanda relocated to the St. Paul Rondo neighborhood where Blakey would live for the rest of his life.

He graduated from Central High School in 1954 and went into the Air Force. He recalled in April that while in the Air Force he received a frantic phone call from his father saying, “They’re taking my house.”

In the 1960s, some 600 homes and businesses in the heart of Rondo, largely a black community, were demolished to make room for the construction of Interstate 94.

In spite of the highway’s disruption, Blakey and his neighbors continued to identify with the Rondo neighborhood.

“He was a Rondo baby,” Brooke Blakey said.

Blakey married the love of his life, Carolyn Carroll, in a simple ceremony in 1980. That was the same year he became the first African-American police chief of the Minnesota State Fair — a job he would have for 37 years.

The couple had three children: Arthur III, Janelle and Brooke, and five grandchildren.

Arthur and Janelle followed their mother into the health care industry, but Brooke, despite her father’s objections, followed him into law enforcement. One of his last public acts was pinning on her new badge July 25 when she was promoted to sergeant with the Metro Transit Police.

“He told me to go out and do good, and to go out and be good. So that’s what I do,” she said.

While he may have been a tough enforcer as a police officer, he didn’t carry that persona home with him, she said.

“He was a big teddy bear,” Brooke said. “He was definitely not the disciplinarian at all. Mama ruled the roost.”

Was he a romantic?

“Not at all,” said Brooke, laughing. “Their big thing was driving around in their Corvette.”

GODFATHER OF THE COMMUNITY

That convertible two-seater cherry red Corvette was a fixture in their neighborhood along Selby Avenue, recalled Devin Miller, 52, who considered Blakey a mentor and an example of what an African-American man should be like.

“You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing him either in uniform or out of uniform. He was like the godfather of the community,” he said.

Blakey began his law enforcement career with the Ramsey County sheriff’s office on March 3, 1965, as a reserve deputy. He went full time in 1970.

Related: From pioneering Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy to State Fair police chief, ‘Art Blakey Day’ is proclaimed

Miller met Blakey in the early 2000s while volunteering at the New Beginnings center. With Blakey’s aid, he later helped found the God Squad, a community group that helps forge relationships between the police and the community.

“We were experiencing a lot of gang issues, drug issues,” he said. “Art was very instrumental in helping us get jackets to identify us. He was county (police), but this was his community. That just shows how committed he was to the community.”

As they worked to clean up Selby Avenue, they made a pledge to Golden Thyme Coffee and Cafe that if the owners opened their business in Rondo, they would support it.

“Golden Thyme was our community center,” he said. Blakey and other community members met there regularly to patronize the shop and to watch over it. “It has become an iconic fixture in Rondo,” Miller said. “Art Blakey should be remembered for his kindness in protecting the community.”

LEGACY OF FORGIVENESS

It was Blakey’s protective instinct that put him between innocent people and a gunman in 1996 when a 19-year-old man shot him three times during an armed robbery at the old VFW post on Fisk Street.

Blakey had gotten several people out a back door to safety and had turned around to confront the gunman, a confrontation ending with both men shot.

That gunman was Danny Givens. And that encounter with Blakey was a turning point in his life.

Givens went to prison, converted to Christianity and later became a pastor of Above Every Name ministries.

Givens met the “kindness” side of Blakey in 2009, when Blakey approached him on the street, accepted his apology and told Givens he forgave him and that he loved him.

“Art Blakey in body is what it meant to be a professional policeman as well as a personable community member,” Givens said. “He showed up at the intersection of those two with a heart full of humanity and integrity.”

Givens said when he heard Blakey was dying, he longed to see him one more time but wasn’t sure he would be accepted by family members.

Encouraged by Brooke, he came over and sat vigil with Blakey, who was sedated at the time.

“I’m a pastor,” he said. “I deal with life and death transitions all the time. It’s different with someone who you’ve harmed physically.”

He said one of Blakey’s daughters saw that he was struggling and encouraged him.

“She said, ‘I hope you know that not only did he forgive you, but our family forgives you. You’re part of his legacy. You must continue to go forward.’ ”

STATE FAIR AND BEYOND

Blakey’s legacy stretches out from Rondo to people all around the state.

During his time with Ramsey County, he rose to the rank of commander and served under four sheriffs. He also took time to be involved in community events.

South St. Paul Mayor Jimmy Francis served as Blakey’s prime minister when Blakey was appointed King Boreas (another first for African Americans) of St. Paul’s Winter Carnival in 2010.

“When we toured around anywhere in the state, there were police officers and first responders who made their way over to us to say hi to Art,” he said. “It was not uncommon for us to hear in a parade, ‘Art Blakey! I want to talk to you!’ He had a ton of friends.”

Francis said as personable as Blakey was — remembering everyone’s names and details about them — he did not like the limelight.

“It was always about everybody else,” he said. “He wasn’t a great public speaker, so he put other people around him that were.”

The State Fair served as a center for Blakey to influence many people.

“It’s impossible to express what Art Blakey means to the State Fair,” said Jerry Hammer, the Fair’s general manager. “Chief Blakey epitomized everything you could want in a police officer and a public servant. Art was a true hero in every respect.”

St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell echoed those sentiments.

“He personified kindness, forgiveness and the best of what it means to be a law enforcement professional. His life inspires me to do better every day.”

His last few days were peaceful, Brooke Blakey said. “He was still trying to work and didn’t want to be a bother to anyone.”

The family has not yet set a time or place for a memorial, Brooke said, explaining that the usual church or funeral home would not suffice considering how well known he was in the community.