'A great icon has just left this world,' Alan Osmond says of Andy Williams (+video)

For many families, Williams and his music were a holiday tradition. His annual Christmas specials continued long after his show ended, featuring Williams dressed in colorful sweaters singing favorites that almost always included "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," a song written for Williams that became a holiday standard.

Williams' act was, apparently, not an act. The singer's unflappable manner on television and in concert was mirrored offstage.

"I guess I've never really been aggressive, although almost everybody else in show business fights and gouges and knees to get where they want to be," he once said. "My trouble is, I'm not constructed temperamentally along those lines."

In 1992, he moved to Branson, where he did two shows a night, six days a week, nine months of the year. Only in recent years did he cut back to one show a night. His most popular time was Christmas.

He and his second wife, the former Debbie Haas, divided their time between homes in Branson and Palm Springs, Calif., where he spent his leisure hours on the golf course when Branson's theaters were dark during the winter months following Christmas.

Retirement was not on his schedule. As he told the AP in 2001: "I'll keep going until I get to the point where I can't get out on stage."

Williams is survived by his wife and his three children.

E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com