Maria Franziska Von Trapp
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Maria Agatha Franziska Gobertina von Trapp (28 September 1914 – 18 February 2014) was the second-oldest daughter of Georg von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead von Trapp. She was a member of the Trapp Family, Trapp Family Singers, whose lives inspired the musical and film ''The Sound of Music''. She was portrayed by Heather Menzies as the character "Louisa". She died at age 99, and was the last surviving sibling portrayed in the film.


Biography

She was born on 28 September 1914 in Zell am See, Salzburg, then part of Austria-Hungary. Her siblings were Rupert von Trapp (1911–1992), Agathe von Trapp (1913–2010), Werner von Trapp (1915–2007), Hedwig von Trapp (1917–1972), Johanna von Trapp (1919–1994), and Martina von Trapp (1921–1951). Along with her six siblings, father, and stepmother, Maria von Trapp, Maria Augusta von Trapp, she was part of the Trapp Family Singers, who inspired the 1959 Broadway theatre, Broadway musical and the 1965 Academy Award-winning Best Picture ''The Sound of Music (film), The Sound of Music''. Von Trapp sang second soprano in the choir, together with her sister Martina von Trapp. The family fled Austria after the Anschluss, German annexation of Austria, fearing reprisals resulting from declining to sing at Adolf Hitler, Hitler's birthday party and Georg von Trapp's refusal to accept a commission in Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine''. They emigrated to the United States in 1938, settled in Vermont in 1942, and performed throughout the country. Baron von Trapp died in 1947. Maria Franziska became a United States nationality law, naturalized U.S. citizen in 1948 and lived at her family's lodge in Stowe, Vermont. The family continued to tour until their last concert on 26 January 1956, at which time Maria Franziska and her stepmother became lay missionaries in Papua New Guinea where Maria Franziska adopted a son, Kikuli Mwanukuzi. From 22 July 2008 to 27 July 2008, she visited her childhood home in Salzburg/Aigen and her birthplace in Zell am See. Accompanying her were her half-brother Johannes and her sister-in-law Erika (Werner von Trapp, Werner's widow). During their visit, the group met with Ernst Florian Winter, the husband of her sister Johanna von Trapp, Johanna (1919–1994). She was the last survivor of the seven original von Trapp children. One of three half-siblings, from her father's second marriage, Maria Von Trapp#Children, Rosmarie von Trapp (1929-2022), Maria Von Trapp#Children, Eleonore von Trapp (1931–2021), and Johannes von Trapp (born 1939), is still alive, but they were not featured in ''The Sound of Music''. Maria Franziska von Trapp died on Tuesday, 18 February 2014 in Stowe, Vermont at the age of 99.


References


External links


Maria Franziska von Trapp besucht Salzburg (derStandard.at)

Maria von Trapp in Salzburg (kurier.at)

Living in Stowe, Vermont

Listing from Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, Vermont




{{DEFAULTSORT:Trapp, Maria Franziska von 1914 births 2014 deaths Emigrants from Austria to the United States after the Anschluss People from Zell am See 20th-century Austrian women singers 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers Trapp family, Maria Franziska Austrian nobility Austrian people of English descent Roman Catholic missionaries in Papua New Guinea Austrian Roman Catholic missionaries Female Roman Catholic missionaries Austrian expatriates in Papua New Guinea Naturalized citizens of the United States