{"id":448816,"date":"2025-10-15T16:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/448816\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:39:10","slug":"funeral-arrangements-announced-for-captain-dee-fense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/448816\/","title":{"rendered":"Funeral arrangements announced for Captain Dee-Fense"},"content":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE \u2014 He was a staple at M&T Bank Stadium. Ravens fans recognized him immediately by his captain hat and the large D cutout he carried with a piece of white picket fence. He had probably taken thousands of selfies with fans through the years,<\/p>\n

But Ravens fans will no longer see this beloved figure at games. Earlier this month, Wes Henson, better known as Captain Dee-Fense, died.<\/p>\n

Rather than mourn the loss, his family and friends want to celebrate his life. His funeral service next week will be open to the public and livestreamed.<\/p>\n

RELATED CONTENT: Ravens Flock mourns the loss of super fan Captain Dee-Fense<\/a><\/p>\n

March Funeral Home in Randallstown is holding the service. There will be two visitations at different March Funeral Home locations. The first will be on October 21 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at March Funeral Home in West Baltimore. The second visitation is on October 22 from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the March Funeral Home location in Randallstown.<\/p>\n

The wake is scheduled for October 23 at 10 a.m. at the Randallstown location, followed by a celebration of life, which will be livestreamed<\/a>, at 11 a.m. He will be buried at Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery.<\/p>\n

Henson’s family is encouraging everyone to celebrate his legacy by wearing purple.<\/p>\n

A vigil was held last week on Ravens Walk for fans to gather and share memories.<\/p>\n

Henson, who served 24 years in the Navy doing intelligence work, has been with the Ravens since the franchise’s inception. His look started with just camo pants and a sign that read “Defense.” According to the Ravens, when a little girl long ago at Memorial Stadium asked him if he was “the captain of the defense,” Captain Dee-Fense was born.<\/p>\n

Henson was also part of ESPN’s inaugural class of Hall of Fans in 2012. Beyond Ravens games, Captain Dee-Fense went to charity events, spoke at schools, visited hospitals, and even made private appearances at weddings, birthday parties, and funerals. He never made a dime from any of these events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE \u2014 He was a staple at M&T Bank Stadium. Ravens fans recognized him immediately by his captain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,75423,39893,117,45778,75424,75425,849,2282,72762,75426,75427,7,75428,6,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-448816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-fan-news","10":"tag-baltimore-news","11":"tag-baltimore-ravens","12":"tag-baltimore-ravens-fans","13":"tag-baltimore-ravens-fans-news","14":"tag-baltimore-sports-news","15":"tag-baltimore-ravens-news","16":"tag-baltimoreravens","17":"tag-captain-dee-fense","18":"tag-captain-dee-fense-news","19":"tag-dee-fense","20":"tag-football","21":"tag-funeral-arrangements-for-captain-dee-fense","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-ravens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115379173185417052","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}