Maria Franziska von Trapp

Maria Agatha Franziska Gobertina von Trapp (28 September 1914 – 18 February 2014) was the second-oldest daughter of Georg Ludwig von Trapp and Agatha Whitehead von Trapp. She was a member of the Trapp Family Singers, whose lives were the inspiration for the musical play The Sound of Music. She was portrayed as the character "Louisa."

Biography

Along with her five siblings, father, and stepmother, Maria Augusta von Trapp, she was part of the world-renowned Trapp Family Singers, who inspired the 1959 Broadway musical and the 1965 Academy Award-winning Best Picture The Sound of Music. Von Trapp sang second soprano in the choir, together with her sister Martina von Trapp.

The von Trapps fled Austria after the German annexation of Austria, fearing reprisals resulting from declining to sing at Hitler's birthday party and Georg von Trapp's refusal to accept a commission in the German Navy. They came to the United States in 1938, settled in Vermont in 1942, and performed throughout the country. Baron von Trapp died in 1947. The family continued to tour and concertize until 1955, at which time Maria von Trapp and her stepmother became lay missionaries in Papua, New Guinea. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1948 and lived at her family's lodge in Stowe, Vermont.

From 22 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's widow). During their visit, the group met with Ernst Florian Winter, the husband of her sister Johanna von Trapp (1919–1994).

She was the last survivor of the seven original von Trapp children. Three half-siblings, Rosmarie von Trapp (born 1929), Eleonore von Trapp (born 1931), and Johannes von Trapp (born 1939), are still alive, but they were not featured in The Sound of Music.

Maria Agatha Franziska Gobertina von Trapp died on 18 February 2014 in Stowe, Vermont at the age of 99.