Did you know?
Agathe Von Trapp recently died at the age of 97. Yes this was Liesl in your favourite musical of the 60s – The Sound of Music.
Remember the teenage eldest daughter of the Von Trapp family? The magic of this play and film was not just the music but the fact that it was a true story. Captain Von Trapp was a naval officer who had seven children. His wife died in 1922 and he subsequently married the governess of his seven children.
When the captain lost most of his fortune in the failure of an Austrian bank, the family, under the tuition of Maria, – the stepmother- took to singing folk songs and performing in public. They gave concerts in Vienna and Salzberg and toured France, Germany and Belgium.
When the threat of Nazism came to Austria the family fled to America. They settled on a farm in Vermont and became known as the Trapp Family Singers. They closed their careers in 1947. Agathe was then 43. She started a kindergarten in Baltimore and taught music, art and German until 1993. She was a talented water colourist and sang her way through life, wrote a book called ‘Memoirs before and after Sound of Music.
Four members of the Von Trapp Singers survive Agathe.
Lou Pickering
