HAVE GERMAN WILL TRAVEL sound of Music "": Fact or Fiction Real Story of the von Family

"The Hills Are Alive!"

Q. Did you discover any surprises?

A. I discovered that my grandfather came back from Germany to because he wanted to go into the military, and they didn't have one in Germany at that time. He went into the navy, and became commander of a big ship. They came into a big stonn. My grandfather landed the ship on a sandbank and saved every single person on the ship. He got a big award from the kaiser~ we got a beautiful crest, and the addition of "von" in our name, because we were elevated to royalty.

Q. If you could do it all over again, would you have chosen a different career?

A. I would not have wanted to do anything else. That was my life. We sang so well together. It was just a wonderful feeling. Real-life member of 'Sound of Music'

familv, was 97 DICIMBIR30,2010

HAGERSTOWN, MD. (AP) - caring parent he was, Kane Agathe von Trapp, a mem­ said. ber of the musical family "She cried when she first whose escape from Nazi­ saw it because of the way occupied Austria was the they portrayed him," Kane basis for "The Sound of said. "She said that if it had Music," has died, a longtil)le been about another family friend said Wednesday. she would have loved it." Von Trapp, 97, died Tues­ Von Trapp wrote her day at a hospice. in the Balti­ memoir, "Memories Before more suburb of Towson and After The Sound of after suffering congestive Music," published in Sep­ heart"failure in November, tember by Harper Paper­ said Mary Louise Kane. backs, to set the record Kane and von Trapp lived straight, Kane said. together for five decades AGATHE VON TRAPP , the and ran a kindergarten at youngest of the chi,,ldren, the Sacred Heart Catholic three more children with said Agathe was a private parish in nearby Glyndon his second wife, Maria person who also was a tal­ Augusta Kutschera. They until 1993. ented sketch artist. Von Trapp was the oldest performed together as the He said she will be daughter of Austriap. naval Singers. buried in the spring at a Capt. Georg Ritte~ von Agathe, a guitarist, was cemetery at the Trapp Fam­ Trapp. His seven children represented in the film by ily Lodge in Stowe, Vt. by his first wife, Agathe 16-going-on-17 Lies!, played Agathe's death leaves Whitehead von Trapp, by Charmian Carr. But four surviving members of were the basis for the Agathe was far more Singers: singing family in the 1~59 reserved than the outgoing , 96; Ros­ play and 1965 film, which Lies!, Kane said. marie von Trapp, 81; won the Oscar for best pic­ Although Agathe admired Elenore ''Lorli" von Trapp the movie, she felt it misrep­ ture. Campbell, 79; and Johannes, The widowed captain had resented her father as too 71. strict and not as the loving,