Rosemary Trapp, whose Austrian family von Trapp became famous in her favorite film “Sounds of Music”, has died.
She died Friday at the age of 93 at a nursing home in Morrisville, Vermont, Trapp Family Lodge reported. Her brother Johannes is the president of the resort of Stowe.
Rosemary was the first daughter of Austrian naval captains Georg von Trapp and Maria von Trapp, as well as the younger half-sister of von Trapp’s older children, who appeared on stage and in the film. The family fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 and toured Europe and America. They settled in Vermont in the early 1940s and opened a ski lodge in Stowe.
“She traveled and performed with Trapp Family Singers for many years, and also worked at Trapp Family Lodge in its infancy when the family first began hosting guests at their home,” Trapp Family Lodge said in a statement.
“Her kindness, generosity and colorful spirit were legendary, and she has had a positive impact on countless lives,” the statement said.
“Sounds of Music” is based on Maria von Trapp’s 1949 book. Georg von Trapp and his first wife Agatha Whitehead von Trapp had seven children. After the death of his first wife, Georg married Maria, who taught the children music.
George and Maria von Trapp had three more children, Rosemary, Eleanor and Johannes, who were not featured in the film. Eleanor “Lorley” von Trapp Campbell died in October in Northfield, Vermont.
When she became a U.S. citizen in 1951, she signed up as Rosemary Trapp, regardless of background, according to the lodge.
Rosemary worked as a missionary and teacher in Papua New Guinea for five years with her sister Maria, her relatives said. In Stowe, she was known for walking everywhere, often dragging shopping home in a cart or cart. She also often wrote letters to the local newspaper, where she was given her own Rosemary Corner room for her stories. She sang, knitted mugs, washed wool, owned several shops and loved to teach people to sing, they said.
