George Osmond, the patriarch of the Osmonds musical family has died aged 90.

   George Virl Osmond died at his home Tuesday morning. He was 90 years old.

His children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will remember
George Osmond as the Wyoming cowboy, as he called himself. The world,
however, will remember him as the head of an entertainment dynasty.

   Family spokesman Kevin Sasaki said Mr. Osmond died from natural causes incident to his age. He had not been ill.

   "I spoke to Jimmy Osmond and he said his father had a great day yesterday (Monday) and was in good spirits," Sasaki said.

According to family reports, Mr. Osmond’s caregivers got him up Tuesday
and dressed him for breakfast. He lay back down and died.

   The death was first reported by the "Entertainment Tonight" Web site.

Mr. Osmond was born Oct. 13, 1917, in Star Valley, Wyo. A devout member
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served two
missions for the church with his wife, Olive, in Hawaii and in the
United Kingdom. Mr. Osmond was also a veteran of World War II.

The family business was, of course, music: there’s not a single one of us who hasn’t been aurally assaulted by one or other of them over the years:

Osmonds Patriarch Dies. George V. Osmond died Tuesday in Utah at the age of 90, apparently of natural causes.

George was the father of Donny, Marie, Jimmy, Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay, Virl and Tom. His wife, Olive, died in 2004 after 60 years of marriage.

Along
with Olive, George was crucial to the family’s show-business success,
which began with a quartet of Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay. A devout
Mormon, George felt the family’s mission was ”to the outside world.”

And
he approached it studiously. In one interview, he recalled picking the
brains of professional entertainers the Osmonds encountered while
playing fairs early in their career. ”Everything we learned, we
used,” he said.

And they used
it well. The family is currently marking its 50th anniversary in show
biz. More than 100 Osmonds were scheduled for a reunion on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday; it’s not clear how George Osmond’s death will affect those plans.

And it has to be said that George Osmond beleived in that be frutiful and multiply thing:

Osmond is survived by nine children, 55 grandchildren and 48 great-grandchildren.