The creator of the pink plastic lawn flamingo died on Monday, the AP reports. The lawn ornament has become a staple in American culture and kitsch.
Don Featherstone passed away in an elder care facility in Fitchburg, Mass., after battling with Lewy body dementia, his wife Nancy confirmed.
"He was the nicest guy in the world," Nancy Featherstone told the AP. "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 was a classically trained painter, sculptor and artist who studied art at the Worcester Art Museum. He created the pink flamingo sculpture in 1957 for the plastic lawn ornament company Union Products in nearby Leominster after researching the birds in National Geographic.
Dean Mazzarella, mayor of Leominster, called Featherstone "a local classic", according to the Worcester Telegram.
Featherstone retired from Union Products in 1999 after spending 43 years with the company. He remained humble about his creation and talked about it in an interview with the Leominster Champion, obtained by NPR.
"I loved what I did, it's all happy things," he told the Leominster Champion. "You have to figure, my creations were not things people needed in life, we had to make them want them. Things I did made people happy, and that's what life is all about."
