Marie Osmond is made an Honorary Life Member.

Marie Osmond becomes an honorary life member of Kilmarnock Rotary Club ... and hopes to make another appearance in town soon.

Marie, already a massive Killie fan thanks to the fans’ adopting Paper Roses as their signature song, has accepted an offer to become an honorary member of the town’s rotary club. And an ‘excited’ Marie has said she hopes she will be able to come to a club meeting in the not too distant future when she is back in Scotland again.

Said Rotary Club president Fred Orr: “One of Kilmarnock FC’s fans, Robert Morton, met Marie Osmond in Las Vegas and told her about the Killie fans singing her hit song Paper Roses at every game and how it had become the club’s unofficial anthem. “Marie visited Rugby Park in February, 2013 of course, and gave an impromptu performance of the song. The fans, the club and the town were won over,”

Fred added: “The Osmond family has always done tremendous charity work. In the USA Marie Osmond was a co-founder of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and the Osmond family has been involved with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals since its inception in 1983.

The charity, which began as a telethon housed in the Osmond studio and hosted by Marie, has since grown into a leading children’s charity. It has raised 250 million dollars each year, totalling about 5 billion dollars and maintaining 170 hospitals.

“In 2010 Marie picked up the USA Woman of the Year award for her charity work and support of survivors of the earthquake disaster in Haiti.

“Like the Children’s Miracle Network hospitals in the US, the Olive Osmond Hearing Fund, a charity helping profoundly deaf children and their parents also has its roots in America. It has now been extended to the UK.

“This initiative is spearheaded by Merrill Osmond and supported by his entire family. Indeed, Marie’s brother Merrill came to Rugby Park in December, 2014 to raise funds for the Hearing Fund UK.

“Marie, following a special meeting of its members, was unanimously invited to become an Honorary Life Member of Kilmarnock Rotary Club, as a result of her outstanding contribution to charities and her connection with the town.

“She has said that she is very excited to become a club member and hopes that she will be able to attend the next time she visits Scotland.”

We very much look forward to welcoming her.

(We would like to acknowledge the Daily Record newspaper and their reporter, Ian Russell who wrote much of this article.)