Alan Osmond, the eldest of the performing Osmond Brothers, died at 8:30 p.m. Monday at his home in Lehi, Utah, his family told KSL TV. He was 76. [1] His wife, Suzanne, and their eight sons were at his bedside. The family did not release a cause of death; Osmond had been diagnosed with progressive multiple sclerosis in 1987, had used a wheelchair for years, and had spent a week in intensive care shortly before his death. [2]

Born June 22, 1949, in Ogden, Utah, Osmond formed a barbershop quartet with brothers Wayne, Merrill, and Jay in the late 1950s. The group debuted on The Andy Williams Show in 1962, expanded to include younger brothers Donny and Jimmy, and recorded "One Bad Apple" in 1970 — a Billboard No. 1 that launched a decade of ten Top-40 hits and four Top-10s. [3] The Osmonds sold more than 77 million records worldwide. Alan co-wrote "Crazy Horses" (1972), which has had a later life as a European punk touchstone, and the 1974 ballad "Love Me for a Reason." He retired from performing in 1987 after the MS diagnosis and devoted the remaining thirty-nine years to the OneHeart Foundation he co-founded with his wife and to philanthropy work with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which gave him its Dorothy Corwin Spirit of Life Award in 2000. [1]

Donny Osmond wrote on Instagram Tuesday that his eldest brother "quietly carried so much responsibility so the rest of us could shine." [4] Merrill Osmond, the second-eldest, said he had sat with Alan two days before the death and shared "a heart to heart." Wayne Osmond died in January 2025 at 73. Of the four original brothers who opened the Andy Williams appearance in 1962, two remain. Alan's son David Osmond, a Utah morning-show host, was diagnosed with MS in 2005.

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago