Wayne Osmond, of Osmond Brothers, has died at age 73 – Deseret News

Wayne Osmond, whose baritone voice helped create the taut, four-part harmonies of the Osmond Brothers, has died aged 73.

“Wayne Osmond, beloved husband and father, passed away peacefully last night surrounded by his loving wife and five children,” his family said in a statement. “His legacy of faith, music, love and laughter has touched the lives of many people around the world. He wants everyone to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, that families are forever, and that banana splits are the best dessert. We love him and will miss him dearly.”

The Rise of the Osmond Brothers

Long before there was Donny and Marie, or the superstar The Osmonds of the 1970s – when the brothers appeared on the same stage as Elvis at The Hilton in Las Vegas – there were the Osmond Brothers, a barbershop quartet style that had its unofficial start with a performance of “Oh Dear Lord in Heaven” for their Latter-day Saint congregation in Ogden, Utah, the Deseret News reported.

Wayne Osmond was 6th.

The barrage of compliments that came from that performance led parents George and Olive Osmond to believe that their sons might be able to help pay for hearing aids for their two oldest children, Tom and Virl. So George Osmond began planning performances for his sons while Olive Osmond worked with them on their harmonies at home.

The Osmond Brothers performed for family and church groups and parties in and around Ogden. Eventually, they got a chance to travel to Los Angeles and audition for “The Lawrence Welk Show” — and were then cast by Welk, according to the Deseret News.

But the trip was not entirely in vain. Before returning home, the brothers visited Disneyland, where they drew a crowd and stopped traffic with their barbershop act. They returned to Disneyland the following year with a performance that caught the eye of Andy Williams’ father.

About five years after their appearance at the church, the Osmond Brothers made their debut on “The Andy Williams Show”.

And that was only the beginning.

“We owe them everything,” Marie Osmond previously told the Deseret News. “My brothers are legendary. Listen to their harmony (from the old days), it’s unbelievable. I’ve spent a lifetime studying and learning to sing, but I promise you, I’ve never heard anyone sing like my original four brothers.

“My brothers are my heroes,” she continued. “Everything I’ve learned from a professional point of view, about having honesty and integrity and doing the right thing, I’ve learned from them. These are strong men and I love them.”

A man of faith

Throughout his life – even amid the pressures of the entertainment industry, which at one point brought serious financial problems upon the Osmonds – Wayne Osmond held fast to his faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The financial setback of losing millions of dollars that prompted the original Osmond Brothers to return to county fairs and corporate retreats to help pay off their debt “actually makes me love my Heavenly Father more because it made me to realize that money doesn’t do anything; it means nothing,” Wayne Osmond previously told the Deseret News.

Wayne Osmond maintained his values, inspired by his faith, on and off the stage.

“You don’t really have those feelings of, ‘Well, I’m going to start cursing,’ and drink Jack Daniels,” he told the Deseret News during a 2004 interview. “You just don’t even think about going there, basically. It’s just another value system, that’s all.”

“We are Latter-day Saints, and we have a very high moral and ethical code that we live by. … It is not something forced upon us,” he continued. “But when you have certain values ​​that you really like and you like being a part of that organization, then it kind of falls on you to live up to those standards.”

‘I’ve had a wonderful life’

The fourth of the nine Osmond siblings, Wayne Osmond, suffered a few health setbacks over the years.

In 1997, at the age of 46, he underwent surgery for a brain tumor. In 2012 he suffered a major stroke.

The treatment for his cancer resulted in a near-total hearing loss, the Deseret News reported.

“It’s funny and really ironic,” Osmond said in 2018. “But I had the best ears in our family. When my brothers wanted the instruments tuned, I was the one they turned to.”

Although Osmond ended up retiring from the music industry, he still played a role on the Vegas stage, where his younger brother, Donny Osmond, performs solo residencies.

Throughout his run at Harrah’s, Donny Osmond frequently pays tribute to his brothers, starting with “The Andy Williams Show” and working his way up to The Osmonds’ stardom and their first No. 1 hit, “One Bad Apple” – originally intended for the Jackson 5.

He includes a montage of clips in his show, including one showing the Osmonds dancing with their older brothers, Tom and Virl, on “The Andy Williams Show.”

While showing the clip, Donny Osmond speaks fondly of all his older brothers, noting how Tom and Virl danced in perfect sync with their siblings despite their severe hearing loss.

“I’ve had a wonderful life,” Wayne Osmond previously told the Deseret News. “And you know being able to hear isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, it really isn’t. My favorite thing now is tending my garden. I turn off my hearing aids, deaf as a doorknob, tune everything, it’s really joyfully.”