SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Olive Osmond, the matriarch of the Osmond family, was buried Saturday amid tight security after rumors surfaced of a $30,000 bounty for a photograph of her in a coffin. A family spokesman said there were no apparent attempts at taking such a picture.
Fans had contacted the Osmond Brothers in Branson, Mo., to tell them a Web site had posted a rumor offering money for photo of their mother in the coffin, surrounded by her children.
"If in fact the threat and Web site we heard about was for real, I don't think they got what wanted," said family spokesman Ron Clark.
Osmond, 79, died last Sunday of complications from a stroke she suffered more than two years ago.
Clark said about 20 security personnel watched over Provo's Oak Hills Stake Center, a meetinghouse for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as 1,200 people attended the funeral service and burial in a nearby cemetery.
Publicity about the photo rumor made the family and friends wary. "Everybody was looking out of their eye twice at each other," Clark said.
Purses weren't allowed during Friday night's viewing. The family didn't close the funeral to the public, but asked the public to be observe the dignity of the traditional Mormon funeral.
Some of George and Olive Osmond's nine children achieved fame in the 1960s and 1970s, when they produced 34 gold and platinum records, and have continued to record music and make television appearances.
From 1976-79, Donny and Marie Osmond hosted the television program "The Donny and Marie Show," which their older brothers helped produce.
Donny Osmond hosts the game show "Pyramid." Marie Osmond has a daily five-hour syndicated radio show that originates from the same Provo neighborhood where the family lived.
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