Entertainment

Last Surviving Trapp Family Singer Dies

by Kate Ward

Music fans and Sound of Music devotees were sadly forced to say so long and farewell to a legend. On Tuesday, Maria von Trapp passed away at the age of 99, according to the Associated Press. Von Trapp was the last surviving member of the original Trapp Family Singers, and is not to be confused with the Maria von Trapp portrayed by Julie Andrews in 1965's The Sound of Music, who passed away in 1987. Instead, von Trapp served as the inspiration for Louisa, one of the mischievous children from the Broadway musical and its cinematic adaptation.

Despite the fact that the fictionalized version of von Trapp's childhood changed her name, the story remained the same: Along with her siblings, father (Georg von Trapp), and stepmother (Maria von Trapp), von Trapp fled Nazi-occupied Austria and acquired fame performing across the world.

Trapp passed away in Vermont, just months after 22 million viewers got a chance to hear her family's tale thanks to NBC's The Sound of Music Live .

Image: 20th Century Fox