The following is an excerpt from the new book Women of Character.
Singer Marie Osmond’s faith does not come from her parents; she insists, “I am a member of my Mormon faith because I want to be.”1 Her faith in God and His restored Church is her anchor amid the storms that threaten her sense of peace. In 2010, after attending the funeral of a son who committed suicide, Marie said, “Little did I know I would be relying on my faith, especially as much as I did this past week.”
With faith in the eternal nature of life and a promise of a “forever family,” Marie, like so many times before, returned to the stage at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, where she was performing with her brother Donny. She told a standing-room-only crowd, “The way Osmonds survive is we keep singing and that’s what we want to do tonight.”2
Daughter of George and Olive Osmond, Marie was born October 13, 1959, in Ogden, Utah. She and her eight brothers were raised on Mormonism and show business. It was in show business that Marie became a legend. At age three, she debuted as part of her brothers’ act on The Andy Williams Show. With Marie seated on Williams’s lap, Andy introduced her as “the youngest Osmond Brother.”
Marie did her first show when she was four, and she worked overseas at six and seven. Yet she laments that success cheated her “of a normal, happy childhood.” For her, there was always one more performance.
“I had to sacrifice a lot. I grew up in a suitcase—I never did the things normal girls do.” Her parents told her that “show business wouldn’t be easy.” She concludes, “They were right.”3
“I didn’t like show business at first,” Marie confesses. “I decided I wanted to be a secretary. I took shorthand and typing.”4 But as her life unfolded, she realized, “I love crowds. It’s nice to be in front of a television camera or to be in a studio and record.”5
Marie made a name for herself at age thirteen by recording “Paper Roses.” The recording reached number one on the country hit charts. She was named the Best Female Country Vocal Performer and Best New Artist. She then booked her first concert performance at Madison Square Garden to a sold-out crowd. The title song of her next album, Who’s Sorry Now, climbed to number twenty a month after its release. “You know, in the recording business it was all men, television was all men,” said Marie of the 1970s. But she knew then and now, “I’m one of the exceptions to the rule.”6
At age fourteen, Marie and Donny hosted the ABC television variety show Donny & Marie. “I’m a little bit country,” Marie announced at the beginning of each show. Donny answered, “I’m a little bit rock and roll.” Together the “toothy duo” performed comedy sketches and musical moments.
By the time the show was cancelled in 1979, Donny and Marie had endeared themselves to an international audience. They were celebrities and confronted with all the problems associated with fame. Through it all Marie and Donny maintained their Mormon standards. Marie turned down the lead role as Sandy in Grease due to the script’s lack of moral content. She carefully selected which roles to take in television movies and serials, like Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and which children cartoon voice-overs met her criteria. In 1985 Marie and Dan Seals’s duet “Meet Me in Montana” was named the number-one country hit of the year. In 1986 Marie and Paul Davis sang, “You’re Still New to Me,” which also reached number one in the country hits. Since then Marie has been in great demand for television performances, Broadway musicals, films, concert tours, and authoring.
She is president and CEO of Marie Osmond Collector Dolls. In 1991 her first sculpture, a toddler doll named “Olive May” after her mother, set a collectible record on QVC. She is also cofounder of the Children’s Miracle Network, a project that has raised in excess of $3.4 billion since 1983 for children’s hospitals throughout the United States and Canada.
But domestic life is difficult for the showgirl who once said, “Showbiz isn’t for eternity. Marriage is.”7 She has been married and divorced twice. She is the mother of eight children—five adopted—from these marriages. One biographer wrote, “So joyfully has Marie taken to adoptive motherhood that she insists she doesn’t know which child is of her flesh.” As to eternal marriage, she insists, “I have had many good examples of what marriage can be, and I see all the happiness in my parents’ lives, in my brothers’ lives, and I want the same. There are scars, however, and you just need to work through them and get on with life and learn to trust again.”8
In 1999 Marie revealed that she suffered from severe postpartum depression. She coauthored the book Behind the Smile that chronicles her experience with depression. “I guess God never gives us anything we can’t handle,” she writes, “and through all of it, I keep saying there’s got to be a reason you go though it. . . . When you feel like hope is gone, look inside you and be strong, and you finally see the truth that a hero lies in you.”9
Since the book’s release, Marie has starred in an exercise video, published a beauty book, and designed a line of clothing. In 2006 she launched a machine-embroidery line with Bernina and promoted the Nutri-system brand of weight loss. In August 2007 Marie danced on ABC Network’s Dancing with the Stars. She joked, “There are worse habits I could take up going through a mid-life crisis.”10
What’s next? For this legend in the entertainment industry, happiness is the hope. She and her family were recognized as one of the most prolific entertainment families in the world when a star was placed in their honor on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. At that time, the Osmonds had forty-seven gold and platinum records and had sold more than a hundred million records worldwide. Yet Marie hopes for something more. Amid her ups and downs, she believes that her faith in God will bring her the happiness that she desires.
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1 Fred Robbins, “Marie Osmond: Doing What I Want Now,” McCalls, July 1988, 14.
2 Oskar Garcia, “Marie Osmond: My Mormon Faith Got Me Through Son’s Death,” The Huffington Post,
May 12, 2010.
3 “Marie Osmond: about my family that TV didn’t tell,” Star, May 4, 1982.
4 Ibid.
5 Robbins, 14.
