Maria Franziska Von Trapp dead at 99

Maria Franziska von Trapp has died. She was 99.

Maria Franziska was the last surviving member of the von Trapp family which inspired the musical and film The Sound of Music.

From Austrian Times:

The last member of the singing and dancing von Trapp family that inspired the Sound of Music has died aged 99 at home in Vermont, America.

The family fled their home of Salzburg in Austria when the Nazis arrived and ended up performing around America where this story eventually inspired the 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical hit.

Maria Franziska, who was the last of the seven brothers and sisters from the von Trapp family who was still alive, died in her sleep aged 99.

Family friend Marianne Dorfer who runs the von Trapp Villa Hotel in Salzburg said: "It was a surprise that she was the one in the family to live the longest because ever since she was a child she suffered from a weak heart. It was the fact that she suffered from this that her father decided to hire Maria von Trapp to teach her and her brothers and sisters. That of course then led to one of the most remarkable musical partnerships of the last century."