Names In The News
Associated Press
April 11, 1980

LONDON - The show went on, doctors or no. Merrill Osmond, third eldest member of the pop singing Osmond family, defied medical advice and went on stage here Thursday after collapsing at his London hotel earlier in the day.

Osmond, 27, has had heart trouble for three years and is worried about his son, Shane who was hospitalized here this week with suspected meningitis, said the group's publicist, Tony Brainsby.

Shane is expected to be released soon.

"It is the strain of that coupled with the tour that has made Merrill ill," Brainsby said.

The singer was driven to the theater in an ambulance and a nurse and an oxygen cylinder were on standby in the wings.

The Osmonds are in Britain for a tour of London and provincial cities. British newspapers today reported the six brothers and sister Marie are saying it will be their last tour before they split up.