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If stuck in the back seat of a car, Michael Bryan would joke for hours with siblings and friends rather than complain. Give him a hot, dirty job on a construction site, and he would seek you out one year later to thank you, once more, for the opportunity.
A deep thinker who was often quiet and unobtrusive, all the young man needed was a spot in a conversation to offer a joke that would have everyone laughing.
Bryan, the 18-year-old adopted son of Marie Osmond and her second husband Brian Blosil, was all that and more, according to those who knew him.
That was before Feb. 26, when he jumped eight floors to his death from his Los Angeles apartment, while newly enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.
Thanks to the iconic status of his famous mother, the youth's death has sparked ugly headlines and speculation by entertainment reporters, bloggers and Web commentors. That seems a haphazard, tragic memorial for Bryan, whom longtime friends and acquaintances characterized as a classic example of the cliché "still waters run deep."
Those closest to him haven't broken the silence requested by his mother, who was photographed weeping during the Monday funeral service at a Provo stake center near the Mormon temple, attended by Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alan Nierob, Osmond's Los Angeles publicist, said his client seeks silence as she and her family grieve. Osmond returned to the stage of Flamingo Las Vegas with her brother Donny the day after Bryan's funeral.
"The way Osmonds survive is we keep singing, and that's what we want to do tonight. I know my son would want that," she said from the stage, according to an Associated Press report.
Members of the Osmond family contacted by The Salt Lake Tribune -- including his uncle Jimmy, his cousins Don Jr., Nathan and Aaron -- declined comment or didn't return e-mail or phone queries. In a phone conversation, Stephen James Craig, the sole child of Marie's first marriage to Stephen Craig and the oldest of her eight children, declined comment out of respect for his mother's wishes. Bryan's father, record producer Brian Blosil, didn't return Tribune calls.
Adopted as a newborn in 1991, Bryan and his seven siblings lived through Osmond's and Blosil's March 2007 divorce. Some seven months later, Bryan entered rehab.
"He shared with me that he had some substance-abuse issues, but I can't remember if he talked about those before or after he entered rehab," said Dave Wilbur, a Saratoga Springs music instructor who taught Bryan bass guitar. "I'm a recovering alcoholic myself, so I was very sympathetic about listening."
The outlines of Bryan's personality, and the possible motivation for his suicide, are discernible only from anecdotes and respectful suppositions by those close to the families of both his mother and father.
What emerges is the portrait of shy young man who had little trouble enjoying life, even if he as an adolescent he struggled with depression. Next to his suicide, the most shocking announcement to many was news of his October 2009 legal name change from Michael Brian Blosil to Michael Bryan. Granted by a Utah 4th District Court judge, the petition deleted his adopted father's surname and apparently altered the spelling of his given middle name to become his surname.
In an attempt to grieve away from the media spotlight generated by the high-wattage presence of the Osmonds, the Blosil family held its own memorial Sunday, the day before the funeral.
"For anyone to insinuate anything negative about the two separate services is flat-out wrong," said Alan Hawks, a friend of the Blosil family, who attended the Sunday memorial. All comments about the Osmond family at the service were completely positive, he said.
Bryan spent his formative school years in Utah County, attending Cascade Elementary and Canyon View Jr. High School up to 10th grade at Orem High before moving with his family to Henderson, Nev.
He played football in the Orem City League team with his father, also a football coach, said Lisa Hatch, who worked 23 years alongside Marie, most recently as vice president of the singer's popular doll company.
Hatch, whose two children grew up with Bryan and his siblings, remembers his youthful excitement visiting Disneyland. By tradition, the park provides security so celebrities and their children can bypass crowd lines for amusement rides. Staying out late without their parents, Bryan and Hatch's children decided to stand in line like everyone else.
"I'd never seen anyone so excited about being in line for a ride at Disneyland," Hatch said.
Noting Osmond's Dec. 9 broadcast appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" last year, Hatch said she found the media "agenda" regarding Bryan's suicide extremely distasteful.
DeGeneres thanked Osmond for "her support of equal rights" during the broadcast, after which the singer, acknowledged that her adopted daughter Jessica Marie was gay.
"I couldn't love her more," Osmond told the studio audience. "She's just the greatest person. All my kids are great. How do you not love your child? I don't understand that."
Bryan had a penchant for exotic foods, and took both drum and bass guitar lessons at Orem's Modern School of Music in the years before he enrolled at the Los Angeles design school.
"He was really talented," said Wilbur, his former music instructor. "He could take almost any challenge you threw at him. He was a great kid, but seemed conflicted back then. He had some issues with his parents that he talked about during lessons. But what kid doesn't have issues with his parents?"
Hawks, who owns a construction company, remembers Bryan's notable work ethic. Many Utah County friends approached him about possible construction jobs for their children, but Osmond's and Blosil's son proved to be a good hire. In fact, he turned out to be one of the hardest-working young adults Hawks has ever met. "You can't find 15-year-old boys who put in 12-hours days like he did without wincing or complaining a single time," Hawks said.
Thinking about what Bryan might have gone on to achieve is what makes his suicide such a tragic paradox for his friends. "He simply made an error in thinking," Hawks believes. "Knowing Michael as I did, I'm sure he said to himself afterward, 'Now why did you do something like that?'"
Though his parents' divorce caused "some strife" in the family, as most divorces do, Hawks speculates Bryan was simply trying to figure out who he was when he changed his name late last year.
"There was some bumping of heads when he was younger, but people need to understand that was coming to an end completely," Hawks said. "I can't emphasize enough that he loved both his mom and dad. Teenagers go through struggles. Sharing his feelings and emotions was probably his weak spot. He was probably too tender-hearted for this world."
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