Maria von Trapp Totally Explained

Everything about Maria Von Trapp totally explained

Maria Augusta von Trapp (née Kutschera; January 26 1905 – March 28 1987) was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. Her story and that of her family's escape from the Nazis after the Anschluss was the inspiration for the musical The Sound of Music. The family, which by then included ten children, became famous in a new context and was soon touring the world. After the war, they founded the Trapp Family Austrian Relief, Inc., which sent hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and clothing to impoverished Austria.
The Trapp family made a series of 78 rpm discs for RCA Victor, some of which were later issued on RCA Camden LPs. There were also a few later recordings released on LPs, including some stereo sessions. The family also made an appearance on an Elvis Presley Christmas record.

Children and stepchildren

Maria had another 3 children with Georg, 8 years after the stepchildren had been born, with all ten living through World War II, to more than 30 years of age.

Name	Birth	Notes
Rosemarie von Trapp	8 February 1929	works as a singer with her family, later as a missionary in Papua New Guinea, now lives in Vermont, no children.
Eleonore von Trapp	14 May 1931	married 1954 to Hugh David Campbell and has seven daughters, she lives with her family in Waitsfield, Vermont.
Johannes von Trapp	17 January 1939	married 1969 to Lynne Peterson and has one son and one daughter.

The names of the 7 stepchildren are:

Rupert von Trapp (1911-1992)
Agathe von Trapp (1913-)
Maria F. von Trapp (1914-)
Werner von Trapp (1915-2007)
Hedwig von Trapp (1917-1975)
Johanna von Trapp (1919-1994)
Martina von Trapp (1921-1951)

Vermont

The Trapps made their home at a farm in Stowe, Vermont, in 1942, where they founded a music camp. Georg von Trapp died of lung cancer on May 30, 1947, (much the contrary to their depiction in the musical The Sound of Music).
The Sound of Music
Maria's book, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, published in 1949, was a best-seller. It was made into two successful German/Austrian films:

(1956)
(1958). The book was later adapted into The Sound of Music, a successful Broadway musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, which resulted in an immensely popular U.S. motion picture. The Sound of Music, with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opened on Broadway in the fall of 1959, starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel. It was a success, running for more than three years. The film version set box office records, but the Baroness von Trapp said she received only about $500,000 in royalties. Until one daughter recommended that Maria read a book entitled The Cross and the Switchblade. Maria was intrigued and joined two of her daughters in visiting the University of Notre Dame, where she met James Cavnar of the Word of God movement. Maria wrote that she made a "personal commitment" to Christ, becoming part of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. She died 1987 at the age of 82.
   Maria von Trapp, her husband Georg, and Hedwig von Trapp (1917–1972), the fifth child of Georg and Agathe von Trapp, are interred in the family cemetery at the Lodge, as is another of Georg and Agathe's daughters, Martina (1921-1951), who died in childbirth on February 25, 1951 along with her infant daughter Notburga.
   The Lodge is now managed by Georg and Maria's son Johannes. It remains one of Vermont's most popular tourist destinations and also serves as one of the main concert sites for the Vermont Mozart Festival.
   Four of the couple's great-grandchildren, all children of Stefan von Trapp, the son of Georg's son Werner, sing as the Von Trapp Children. Maria von Trapp's granddaughter, Elisabeth von Trapp, is a singer whose concerts are a mixture of Gregorian chant, musical comedy, country and contemporary folk.
   Maria von Trapp makes a cameo appearance in the movie version of The Sound of Music. For an instant, she, her daughter Rosmarie, and Werner's daughter Barbara can be seen walking past an archway during the song, "I Have Confidence", at the line, "I must stop these doubts, all these worries/If I don't, then I know I'll turn back."
Death
She died in 1987, on March 28, of kidney failure in Morrisville, Vermont, three days after surgery, and almost 40 years after her husband, who had died before the book, musical, and films appeared.
Books by Maria Augusta Trapp

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers - Maria Augusta Trapp. Philadelphia, Lippincott 1949
Around the Year with the Trapp Family - Maria Augusta Trapp. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1952 New York, Pantheon 1955
A Family on Wheels: Further Adventures of the Trapp Family Singers - Maria Augusta Trapp with Ruth T. Murdoch. Philadelphia, Lippincott, c1959
Yesterday, Today and Forever: The Religious Life of a Remarkable Family - Maria Augusta Trapp. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1952
Maria - Maria von Trapp. Carol Stream, Ill., Creation House 1972
Let Me Tell You About My Savior - Maria Von Trapp. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Press, c2000Further Information
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