Maria F. von Trapp

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Maria Agatha Franziska Gobertina von Trapp
Image:Http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/winter/von-trapps.html
Born	August 28, 1914 (1914-08-28) (age 93) Zell am See, Salzburg, Austria
Occupation	Singer and missionary

Maria Franziska von Trapp (born August 28, 1914) is the second-oldest daughter of Baron Georg von Trapp and Agathe Whitehead von Trapp. Along with her six siblings, father, and stepmother, Maria Augusta von Trapp, Maria comprised the world-renowned Trapp Family Singers, who inspired the 1959 Broadway musical and the 1965 Academy Award-winning Best Picture The Sound of Music. 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. After Baron von Trapp died in 1947 and the family eventually ceased performing, Maria Franziska became a lay missionary in Papua, New Guinea. She now lives on her family's lodge in Stowe, Vermont.^[1]

Of the seven original von Trapp children, only two survive: Agathe, born in 1913 and Maria. Rosmarie, born in 1929, Eleonore, born in 1931 and Johannes, born in 1939, are also alive, but they are half siblings and not part of the seven original Trapp Family Singers siblings featured in "The Sound of Music". Maria is portrayed as the character Louisa

Maria Franziska von Trapp became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1948.

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[edit] External links

• Living in Stowe, Vermont
• Rosmarie, Eleonore, and Johannes were not part of the seven original Trapp Family Singers siblings featured in "The Sound of Music"
• Rosmarie, Eleonore, and Johannes are half-siblings
• Listing from Trapp Family Lodge
• The von Trapp Family in Federal Records