Lorenzo F. Kinney Jr., 100, of 2391 Kingstown Rd., Kingston, whose five acres of azaleas dazzled visitors and passers-by for decades, died Wednesday at home. He was the husband of the late Elizabeth (Todd) Kinney.
The soft-spoken, dapper Mr. Kinney, as enduring as the towering evergreens he planted on his expansive lawns more than 60 years ago, referred to himself as "the azalea man."
His property blazed with color each spring when multicolored blossoms opened on thousands of azalea plants - many of them varieties he developed himself through cross-pollination.
Every May, when the flowers were at their peak, forming rainbows of pink, purple, salmon and red, Mr. Kinney would hold an "azalea tea" for hundreds of invited guests. Then he would declare his property open to everyone for the rest of the growing season.
His gardens were so colorful that a visitor once remarked, "It's like someone took inkwells and splashed them from the sky."
An accomplished artist and photographer, Mr. Kinney also loved to paint and photograph his flowers. One of his great joys was taking pictures of children as they marveled at the beauty he had created.
Relatives said they were hopeful that Mr. Kinney's gardens could be preserved.
In December, hundreds of well-wishers turned out at the Kingston Congregational Church, which Mr. Kinney attended all his life, to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Spry, trim and active to the end, Mr. Kinney loved telling stories about the changes he saw over his long life, which took him from riding in his father's ox-cart as a child to the space age. As a schoolboy, Mr. Kinney once recalled, he studied by the light of a whale-oil lamp.
Mr. Kinney was a 1914 graduate of Rhode Island State College, now the University of Rhode Island. He received his master's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1915. In 1992, URI awarded him an honorary doctorate.
He worked with young people over a 35-year career as a state 4-H coordinator based on the URI campus, retiring in 1956.
Mr. Kinney, whose interest in azaleas came from his botanist father, began planting flowers on his property in 1927 and never stopped, but in recent years turned the heavy gardening over to a URI graduate student.
Over the past winter, the sun room of his home contained 3,000 rooted cuttings to be set out this year.
At the time of his death, Mr. Kinney still managed the family-owned Larkin Pond Beach Club and New Fernwood Cemetery, both in West Kingston.
He was a past president of the South County Art Association, and a member of the Tavern Hall Club; the Richmond Grange, which last week gave him a 75-year membership award; the Rhode Island Nurserymen's Association; the Connecticut Rhododendron Society; the Rhode Island Cemetery Association; the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce; the Barnard Club; Hope Lodge; the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society; the Cocumscussoc Association and the Gilbert Stuart Association.
He was a son of the late Lorenzo F. Kinney Sr. and Helen May (Wells) Kinney.
The soft-spoken, dapper Mr. Kinney, as enduring as the towering evergreens he planted on his expansive lawns more than 60 years ago, referred to himself as "the azalea man."
His property blazed with color each spring when multicolored blossoms opened on thousands of azalea plants - many of them varieties he developed himself through cross-pollination.
Every May, when the flowers were at their peak, forming rainbows of pink, purple, salmon and red, Mr. Kinney would hold an "azalea tea" for hundreds of invited guests. Then he would declare his property open to everyone for the rest of the growing season.
His gardens were so colorful that a visitor once remarked, "It's like someone took inkwells and splashed them from the sky."
An accomplished artist and photographer, Mr. Kinney also loved to paint and photograph his flowers. One of his great joys was taking pictures of children as they marveled at the beauty he had created.
Relatives said they were hopeful that Mr. Kinney's gardens could be preserved.
In December, hundreds of well-wishers turned out at the Kingston Congregational Church, which Mr. Kinney attended all his life, to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Spry, trim and active to the end, Mr. Kinney loved telling stories about the changes he saw over his long life, which took him from riding in his father's ox-cart as a child to the space age. As a schoolboy, Mr. Kinney once recalled, he studied by the light of a whale-oil lamp.
Mr. Kinney was a 1914 graduate of Rhode Island State College, now the University of Rhode Island. He received his master's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1915. In 1992, URI awarded him an honorary doctorate.
He worked with young people over a 35-year career as a state 4-H coordinator based on the URI campus, retiring in 1956.
Mr. Kinney, whose interest in azaleas came from his botanist father, began planting flowers on his property in 1927 and never stopped, but in recent years turned the heavy gardening over to a URI graduate student.
Over the past winter, the sun room of his home contained 3,000 rooted cuttings to be set out this year.
At the time of his death, Mr. Kinney still managed the family-owned Larkin Pond Beach Club and New Fernwood Cemetery, both in West Kingston.
He was a past president of the South County Art Association, and a member of the Tavern Hall Club; the Richmond Grange, which last week gave him a 75-year membership award; the Rhode Island Nurserymen's Association; the Connecticut Rhododendron Society; the Rhode Island Cemetery Association; the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce; the Barnard Club; Hope Lodge; the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society; the Cocumscussoc Association and the Gilbert Stuart Association.
He was a son of the late Lorenzo F. Kinney Sr. and Helen May (Wells) Kinney.
Lorenzo F. Kinney Jr., 100, of 2391 Kingstown Rd., Kingston, whose five acres of azaleas dazzled visitors and passers-by for decades, died Wednesday at home. He was the husband of the late Elizabeth (Todd) Kinney.
The soft-spoken, dapper Mr. Kinney, as enduring as the towering evergreens he planted on his expansive lawns more than 60 years ago, referred to himself as "the azalea man."
His property blazed with color each spring when multicolored blossoms opened on thousands of azalea plants - many of them varieties he developed himself through cross-pollination.
Every May, when the flowers were at their peak, forming rainbows of pink, purple, salmon and red, Mr. Kinney would hold an "azalea tea" for hundreds of invited guests. Then he would declare his property open to everyone for the rest of the growing season.
His gardens were so colorful that a visitor once remarked, "It's like someone took inkwells and splashed them from the sky."
An accomplished artist and photographer, Mr. Kinney also loved to paint and photograph his flowers. One of his great joys was taking pictures of children as they marveled at the beauty he had created.
Relatives said they were hopeful that Mr. Kinney's gardens could be preserved.
In December, hundreds of well-wishers turned out at the Kingston Congregational Church, which Mr. Kinney attended all his life, to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Spry, trim and active to the end, Mr. Kinney loved telling stories about the changes he saw over his long life, which took him from riding in his father's ox-cart as a child to the space age. As a schoolboy, Mr. Kinney once recalled, he studied by the light of a whale-oil lamp.
Mr. Kinney was a 1914 graduate of Rhode Island State College, now the University of Rhode Island. He received his master's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1915. In 1992, URI awarded him an honorary doctorate.
He worked with young people over a 35-year career as a state 4-H coordinator based on the URI campus, retiring in 1956.
Mr. Kinney, whose interest in azaleas came from his botanist father, began planting flowers on his property in 1927 and never stopped, but in recent years turned the heavy gardening over to a URI graduate student.
Over the past winter, the sun room of his home contained 3,000 rooted cuttings to be set out this year.
At the time of his death, Mr. Kinney still managed the family-owned Larkin Pond Beach Club and New Fernwood Cemetery, both in West Kingston.
He was a past president of the South County Art Association, and a member of the Tavern Hall Club; the Richmond Grange, which last week gave him a 75-year membership award; the Rhode Island Nurserymen's Association; the Connecticut Rhododendron Society; the Rhode Island Cemetery Association; the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce; the Barnard Club; Hope Lodge; the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society; the Cocumscussoc Association and the Gilbert Stuart Association.
He was a son of the late Lorenzo F. Kinney Sr. and Helen May (Wells) Kinney.
The soft-spoken, dapper Mr. Kinney, as enduring as the towering evergreens he planted on his expansive lawns more than 60 years ago, referred to himself as "the azalea man."
His property blazed with color each spring when multicolored blossoms opened on thousands of azalea plants - many of them varieties he developed himself through cross-pollination.
Every May, when the flowers were at their peak, forming rainbows of pink, purple, salmon and red, Mr. Kinney would hold an "azalea tea" for hundreds of invited guests. Then he would declare his property open to everyone for the rest of the growing season.
His gardens were so colorful that a visitor once remarked, "It's like someone took inkwells and splashed them from the sky."
An accomplished artist and photographer, Mr. Kinney also loved to paint and photograph his flowers. One of his great joys was taking pictures of children as they marveled at the beauty he had created.
Relatives said they were hopeful that Mr. Kinney's gardens could be preserved.
In December, hundreds of well-wishers turned out at the Kingston Congregational Church, which Mr. Kinney attended all his life, to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Spry, trim and active to the end, Mr. Kinney loved telling stories about the changes he saw over his long life, which took him from riding in his father's ox-cart as a child to the space age. As a schoolboy, Mr. Kinney once recalled, he studied by the light of a whale-oil lamp.
Mr. Kinney was a 1914 graduate of Rhode Island State College, now the University of Rhode Island. He received his master's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1915. In 1992, URI awarded him an honorary doctorate.
He worked with young people over a 35-year career as a state 4-H coordinator based on the URI campus, retiring in 1956.
Mr. Kinney, whose interest in azaleas came from his botanist father, began planting flowers on his property in 1927 and never stopped, but in recent years turned the heavy gardening over to a URI graduate student.
Over the past winter, the sun room of his home contained 3,000 rooted cuttings to be set out this year.
At the time of his death, Mr. Kinney still managed the family-owned Larkin Pond Beach Club and New Fernwood Cemetery, both in West Kingston.
He was a past president of the South County Art Association, and a member of the Tavern Hall Club; the Richmond Grange, which last week gave him a 75-year membership award; the Rhode Island Nurserymen's Association; the Connecticut Rhododendron Society; the Rhode Island Cemetery Association; the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce; the Barnard Club; Hope Lodge; the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society; the Cocumscussoc Association and the Gilbert Stuart Association.
He was a son of the late Lorenzo F. Kinney Sr. and Helen May (Wells) Kinney.
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