LINDON, Utah — Virl Osmond wrote the book "The Untold Story of Olive Osmond" as
a gift to his mother, who died in 2004.
He feels he owes her that in return for the priceless gifts she gave him
as he and his brother grew up deaf in a famous Mormon family of singers.
"It's because of her that I can communicate," Osmond said. "She left me
with the tools to get through life."
Virl is the eldest in the Osmond family and has a 75 percent hearing
loss. His brother Tom had an 87 percent loss. When Virl and Tom were
babies, a specialist at a deaf school told the Osmonds they should
reconcile themselves to putting the boys in an institution.
Olive Osmond wouldn't hear of it.
She began reading whatever material she could find, taught herself sign
language and taught her sons to talk. Eventually she established the
Children's Miracle Network — originally set up to help deaf children.
Today, the network has raised millions of dollars for children's
hospitals in the United States and around the world.
Virl Osmond wants people to meet the mother who spent hours working with
her sons when they were small and who made a tremendous effort later to
make certain they never felt excluded as the family became show business
icons.
While the world may have heard about her efficiency and tutelage, they
would not have heard about the toddler who wandered into a cornfield for
a nap, kicked a tumbleweed with a rattlesnake inside; the child who was
told by the Spirit more than once to stop before tumbling into danger,
or the young wife who earned a real estate license in the 1950s.
The world would not have known about the mother who immediately enrolled
her deaf boys in tap dance lessons after she heard them complain about
having no talent.
"I wanted the world to know what kind of woman she was. There's plenty
told about her later but not a lot said about earlier," Virl Osmond
said. "I wanted to tell the stories that went before."
Taking excerpts from his mother's journals and adding information he
gleaned over the years as her confidante and eldest child, Osmond has
built a book that details Olive Osmond's childhood, her somewhat
unlikely romance with George Osmond (he kept putting off marriage until
he thought he could financially handle the expense) and her early years
as a devoted mother and ever-patient, supportive wife.
To tell the story, he culled photographs and stories from numerous boxes
and pages written by his mother during hectic times that were survivable
largely because Olive Osmond was tremendously efficient.
He includes details about where the family lived and the many times they
moved. He paints a picture of a serene woman who graciously dealt with
change, challenge and nine children.
He talks about her testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and his mother's dedication to correct principles. It was no
accident that her boys were not only talented on stage but polite and
friendly to fans as well as celebrities.
"My mother was a missionary known throughout the world as Mother
Osmond," her son said. "She taught us correct principles."
He lays out the story of how the Osmond brothers learned to sing and
perform and succeed in a cutthroat world that can be tough on families.
"What a truly remarkable mother I had," Osmond said. "Our family never
could've survived show business without her."
The book, published by Knowledge Unlimited LLC and released in January,
is available at amazon.com and at www.georgevirlosmond.com. A book
signing will be held today Feb. 27 at Costco, 198 N. 1200
East, Lehi.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com