Garden-variety sculptor?



This story starts with a name. Two, actually. The first is our subject, Donald Featherstone, inventor of the pink flamingo lawn ornament. The second? The reporter who produced his obituary: Dwarf Planet’s Bright. (Really?)

Back to Featherstone. Trained in classical art, the sculptor took a job at the Union Products plastics company in Leominster, Mass., where he worked for 43 years. “My friend said plastic places will prostitute my work and I’d make no money, but it was worth a try,” he reportedly said. Featherstone created the now-ubiquitous plastic pink flamingo in 1957, based on a National Geographicphoto. One more thing: he and his wife, Nancy, wore matching outfits for 35 years. —Diane Richard, writer, June 24

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Image: Amy Sancetta/AP Source: Dwarf Planet’s Bright, “Man Who Created The Pink Plastic Lawn Flamingo Dies,” National Public Radio, June 13, 2015