Don Featherstone ( June 25, 1998 photo) never lived in Florida but created the iconic plastic pink flamingo. He died Monday at an elder care facility in Fitchburg, Mass., according to the Associated Press. He was 79. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
Donald Featherstone may have lived out most of his life in the frozen north, but he always kept a reminder of the tropical bird that made him famous: the plastic pink flamingo.
We in The Palm Beach Post Accent section keep a plastic pink flamingo to remind us of Florida’s wacky culture, inspired by a man (like many in our state) who wasn’t from Florida. (Carlos Frías/The Palm Beach Post)
The aptly named Featherstone created the plastic pink flamingo in 1957 as a young art student when the color pink was coming into vogue. He died Monday from complications of dementia in Fitchburg, in his home state of Massachussetts, the Associated Press reported. He was 79.
Every summer, Featherstone, a classically trained sculptor, would decorate his lawn with 57 pink flamingos to commemorate the piece of Americana that made him famous, according to a 2006 story in the Christian Science Monitor.
We in “The Palm Beach Post” Accent section decorate our corner of the newsroom with a yet-unnamed plastic pink flamingo in much the same spirit: to remind us of Florida’s wacky, tropical culture — defined by a man, Featherstone, (who like many in our state) wasn’t from Florida.
Incidentally, Featherstone died the same week as National Pink Day.
Flamingos, plastic or otherwise, are iconically South Florida. (See the “Miami Vice” intro alone.)
A LOOK AT HOW THE ICONIC PINK FLAMINGO PERMEATES CULTURE
FILE – In this Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 photo artist Don Featherstone, 1996 Ig Nobel Prize winner and creator of the plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament, poses with his wife Nancy while being honored as a past recipient during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. Featherstone died Monday, June 22, 2015, at an elder care facility in Fitchburg, Mass., according to his wife, Nancy. He was 79. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
ADV. FOR WKD. EDS., JULY 25-26–Pink flamingoes head on a conveyor to the packing area of the Union Products, Inc. factory in Leominster. Ma., June 25, 1998. Created 41 years ago, this original pink flamingo will be joined this summer by the larger, more upscale Realmingo. The life-size Realmingo will stand on one wooden leg and have plastic eyes. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta) ORG XMIT: NY334
072204 BOYNTON BEACH – West Boynton Beach Little League team’s good luck charm is a plastic pink flamingo they keep in the dugout. PHOTO BY: RICHARD GRAULICH.
012812 (Brandon Kruse/The Palm Beach Post) – WEST PALM BEACH – At center, Debra Clark with the West Palm Beach Pink Flamingos team dances with family members Saturday morning during the 2012 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Clark said she is personally dealing with breast cancer, and has know many others who have battled it. “The list is so long, we’ve stopped counting,” she said.
Pink flamingo sunglasses at the Race for the Cure in downtown West Palm Beach on Saturday, January 31, 2015. The event which raises money for research, as well as promotes awareness about breast cancer, drew 15,000 people. (Madeline Gray / The Palm Beach Post)
