Lakeview thread artist, Charles L. Winslow, dies at 76

Charles L. Winslow, internationally known for his use of thread as an art medium, and an early organizer and active member of the Long Island Black Artists Association, died Monday at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre from complications of sarcosis. He was 76 and lived in Lakeview.

"Mr. Winslow was a great artist and a really good guy, and I loved having his work on exhibit here," said Ruby Boykins, director of the Lakeview Public Library.

Winslow, a self-taught artist, switched his emphasis from paint to his distinctive style of thread art in the early 1960s, using nylon thread and pins to create pictures. He has exhibited around the country and abroad. In addition to Lakeview, Winslow exhibited his work at libraries in Garden City and Smithtown.

"He was an honest, hardworking man, and he was my friend. We used to spend our college vacation here in Hempstead even though we were in schools in North Carolina," said Melvin Perkins, who lived around the corner from Winslow.

Winslow, who graduated in 1962 from North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro, N.C., was a job developer with New York State for 42 years, retiring in 2008.

"Mr. Winslow was a deeply respected and highly valued member of the Long Island community," said Hempstead Mayor Wayne Hall, who hosted an extended exhibit by Winslow and other members of the Long Island Black Artists Association at Village Hall in 2012.

"He was a cultural storehouse who generously shared his experience of the civil rights era," Hall said.

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Winslow was an active member of Union Baptist Church in Hempstead and a member of the Meridian Masonic Lodge in Hertford, N.C.

He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Gloria Winslow; three sons, Charles Jr. of Brooklyn, Charles W. Winslow of Virginia Beach, Va., and Lorenzo R. Winslow of Yarsboro, Ga; a daughter, Roxane Winslow of Lakeview; 15 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Viewing will be from 4 to 7 p.m. on April 4, at Union Baptist Church Hempstead, with the funeral service to immediately follow. Burial will be the following day at 9:15 a.m. at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale.