Osmonds

Little 'o' Malad had another wonderful event. No one can ignore Malad, it's a happen-in place. This time it was the Osmond family that came to Malad. They came to honor and celebrate the birth place of their mother Olive May Davis Osmond.  Olive was born in Samaria, Idaho on May 4, 1925. Luke Waldron with the help of many residents of Samaria and the Scout troop renovated the log cabin that Olive Osmond was born in. Olive grew up in Samara and graduated from Malad High School.  

Merrill, Alan, Jay, Virl, Tom, Donny, Jimmy and several of Alan's sons gave a fireside at the stake center focusing on the important of family history. Their cousin R. Clayton Brough (ABC4 channel news weather man) is their family historian and he shared the history of Olive.

(me and Troy with Merrill Osmond and me with Karen from Texas and Wendy from Florida)

We were first told that the tickets (free) were only for the members of our stake, but then we found out that Alan Osmond had been advertising it on his web site. There were people from England, New Zealand, Japan, Chicago, Oregon, Florida and Texas to name a few. They were trying to reserve their seat in the chapel before the last ward was even finished with church. Everyone was locked out of the building for security to do a sweep of the building. I went to the church at 4:30, waited at the door at 5:30, the doors opened at 6:15 and the fireside started at 7 p.m.  I called Troy to make sure he was coming with my ticket. I was third from the door. Someone said, "It's Rip Van Wrinkle" when Troy walked up.  It was crazy watching these people and their excitement over the Osmonds.  The fireside was awesome! They each shared their testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, family and many wonderful memories of their mother. The spirit was so strong. After the fireside we met Merrill Osmond, who told Troy not to ever shave his beard off. Everyone was visiting with the Osmonds then suddenly they were being ushered to the Relief Society room. It took three men to get Donny to the room. He is truly a super stare. It was mostly the people that came from far that just had to talk to him, touch him and get his autograph. They even wanted to take Troy's picture, some thought he was ZZ Top.

The next day, Monday the Osmonds dedicated their mother's family cabin. Some of them stayed over night in cabins provided by Mayor Spence Horsley and others. However, Donny and his family and I think Jimmy flew back home in their private plane. When we saw them fly in over our place at 10 a.m. we knew we needed to get going to Samaria.

A couple of Alan's sons (The Second Generation) sang some "Osmond Oldies".  Each of the Osmonds expressed their gratitude to everyone, to meet so much family from the Davis side and the work that went into the completion of the cabin. They also shared more stories of their mother.  The large stone in front of the house with the plaque was one that Olive played on as a child. I enjoyed their since of humor. Donny kept mentioning, "Did you know I won the "Dancing with the Stars"? He asked who we thought would win this year. At the fireside Alan introduced his wife, "My wife is the best thing I married".  The brothers had a good laugh over that and each of them introduced their wives, "This is the BEST THING I married". About Merrill, Jay said, "The wheels are turning, but the hamster is sleeping".  Tom was so animated in his signing and talking, it was fun.  After the dedicating of the cabin each brother planted a fruit tree behind the cabin. Jimmy was teasing Donny that he has never used a shovel, which Donny in turn pretended to come at Jimmy with the shovel.  They had a lot of fun. They mingled with everyone again for pictures and autographs.  That evening the event was reported on the news and we saw ourselves in the background.  We wished we could have enjoyed the Osmonds all to ourselves (the community) rather than have so many people coming and invading our quiet little town. 

( Me with Tom Osmond and one of the women that came from Japan)

Alan wanted this plaque to be pronounced "O Live Eternally"