Wayne Osmond, singer, guitarist and founding member of the million-selling family act The Osmonds, best known for such 1970s teen hits as One bad apple, Yo-yo and Down by the lazy riverhas died. He was 73.
Sibling Merrill Osmond posted on his Facebook page that Wayne died this week at a Salt Lake City hospital after “suffering a massive stroke.”
“I've never known a man with more humility. A man without guile,” wrote Merrill. “A man who was quick to forgive and had the ability to show unconditional love to everyone he ever met.”
Success with a group of sisters
Wayne Osmond was the fourth oldest of nine children raised in a Mormon home in Ogden, Utah, and the second oldest of the musicians.
The sisters' career began in the 1950s when Wayne, Alan, Merrill and Jay sang as a barber shop quartet.
Their popularity grew in the 1960s after they were supported by singer Andy Williams, and they reached their peak as a quintet in the early 1970s, with younger brother Donny Osmond as an opening star.
One bad apple and other songs were often compared to the music of the Osmonds' contemporaries such as the Jackson 5, and Donny was positioned as the white person of the Jacksons' lead singer, Michael Jackson.
The Osmonds' popularity waned by the mid-1970s, although Donny and Marie Osmond both had successful careers as solo performers and as a sibling duo.
In the 1980s, Wayne reunited with Alan, Merrill and Jay as a country act and had a number of hits including I'm thinking about your girlfriend.'
Singer hit with health issues in the 1990s
But in the mid-1990s, Wayne was diagnosed with a brain tumor and lost much of his hearing from the surgery and treatment. A stroke in 2012 left him unable to play guitar.
“I've had an amazing life. And you know, not being able to hear everything is really good, no,” he told the Deseret News in 2018.
“My favorite thing now is tending to my garden. I turn on my hearing aids, deaf as a doorknob, put everything out, it's really satisfying.”
Wayne Osmond married Kathlyn White in 1974. They had five children.
