Engagement Off
The Associated Press
July 4, 1979

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Singer Marie Osmond said Wednesday that her engagement to Jeff Crayton is off.

The 19‑year‑old television star told a crowd at the Montgomery Coliseum, "Marriage is a serious thing you don't want to fool around with. We had doubts, so we called it off."

Miss Osmond and two of her brothers, Jay and Wayne, were in Montgomery for the Tumbling Waters Museum's annual Old‑Fashioned Fourth of July Celebration.

A spokesman for celebration said the Osmonds did not perform at the event, but made an appearance and signed autographs. He said the group left for Charlotte, N.C., where they were scheduled to perform Thursday. But a spokesman for Carowinds, an amusement park in Charlotte, said the Osmonds' performance was set for Friday night.

The couple was engaged May 29. Crayton is a Los Angeles actor attending Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, the home of the Osmond family.

Like the Osmonds, 23‑year‑old Crayton is a Mormon.

"Tell the world I love him and I've never been happier," Miss Osmond said when she announced their engagement.

The two were engaged at the Osmond television studios in Orem, Utah, and said they planned a mid‑August wedding in the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City.

Mormons believe temple marriages are for eternity. Only faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints are allowed to witness the ceremonies.

A spokesman at the Osmond studios said Wednesday he knew nothing of the reported breakup. The family's official spokesman, Ron Clark, was traveling with Miss Osmond and her brothers, he said.

Crayton, a communications major at Brigham Young, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R. Crayton of Los Angeles.

Donny Osmond, 23, Miss Osmond's brother and partner on the now‑syndicated "Donny and Marie" television show, was married a year ago. 

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