Creator of pink plastic lawn flamingo dies Donald Featherstone dies in Fitchburg UPDATED 12:17 PM EDT Jun 23, 2015
Artist Don Featherstone, 1996 Ig Nobel Prize winner and creator of the plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament, poses with his Nancy while being honored as a past recipient during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012.AP Photo/Charles Krupa
FITCHBURG, Mass. —Don Featherstone was a classically trained painter, a talented sculptor and artist, who became famous for creating the pink plastic lawn flamingo - the ultimate symbol of American lawn kitsch.
And it didn't bother him a bit.
Featherstone, who died Monday at 79, embraced the fame the invention brought him.
He died at an elder care facility in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, after a long battle with Lewy body dementia, his wife of 40 years, Nancy, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
"He was the nicest guy in the world," Nancy Featherstone said. "He didn't have a selfish bone in his body. He was funny and had a wonderful sense of humor and he made me so happy for 40 years."
Featherstone, who studied art at the Worcester Art Museum, created the ornamental flamingo in 1957 for plastics company Union Products Inc., of Leominster, modeling it after photos of the birds he saw in National Geographic.
Featherstone worked at Union for 43 years, inventing hundreds of products in that time and rising to the position of president before his retirement in 1999.
"People say they're tacky, but all great art began as tacky," Featherstone said in a 1997 interview.
He was forever humble about the flamingo, and in fact, his wife often brought it up in conversations with people they would meet, bringing a sheepish smile from her husband, she said.
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