FILE – Entertainer Wayne Osmond performs at the Orleans Hotel & Casino on August 14, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
new york – Wayne Osmond, singer, guitarist, and founding member of the famous family act osmondspassed away at the age of 73.
Wayne died this week at a Salt Lake City hospital after suffering a “massive stroke,” said his brother Meryl Osmond. posted on his Facebook page.
“I don’t know a more humble man. A completely innocent man,” Merrill wrote. “He was a man who had the ability to forgive quickly and show unconditional love to everyone he met.”
Wayne Osmond, singer and guitarist of the Osmonds
Wayne Osmond was the fourth of nine children, raised in a Mormon family in Ogden, Utah, and was the second-oldest musical performer.
The brothers’ career began in the 1950s when Wayne, Alan, Meryl, and Jay sang as a barbershop quartet.
Their popularity grew in the 1960s with support from singer Andy Williams, and they peaked as a quintet in the early 1970s as their brother Donny Osmond became a breakout star.
The Osmonds were known for 1970s teen hits such as “Yo-Yo” and “Down by the Lazy River.” Songs such as “One Bad Apple” were often compared to the music of the Osmonds’ contemporaries the Jackson 5, and Donnie was positioned as the white counterpart to Jacksons lead singer Michael Jackson.
Although the Osmonds’ popularity waned by the mid-1970s, Donnie and Marie Osmond both enjoyed successful careers as solo performers and as a brother-sister duo.
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In the 1980s, Wayne Osmond reunited with Alan, Meryl, and Jay as a country act and had several hits, including “I Think About Your Lovin’.”
But according to the Associated Press, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in the mid-1990s and lost much of his hearing through surgery and treatment. In 2012, he suffered a stroke and was unable to play the guitar.
“I’ve had a great life, and you know, it’s not just great as it sounds. It’s not,” he told the Deseret News in 2018. I really enjoy tending the garden with my ears as deaf as a doorknob, with my hearing aids turned off and all sounds muted. ”
Wayne Osmond married Kathryn White in 1974, and the couple had five children.
source: The information used in this article was taken from Wayne Osmond’s official Facebook page on January 3, 2025. Reporting from Cincinnati, The Associated Press contributed.
