More Than 100 Attend Memorial Service of Eldest von Trapp of 'Sound of Music' Family

Nurse Rosa Lee Cliett was truly touched by Agathe von Trapp even though they only spent a short time together.

“If God ever had an angel, then this was the one,” she said. “Instead of me cheering her up, it seemed like sometimes she cheered me [up].”

Von Trapp remained upbeat despite health complications leading up to her at a Towson hospice.

“I have a lot of patients, but I don’t always make friends,” said Nurse Cliett. “We were friends.”

Cliett and more than 100 others attended a for von Trapp at on Saturday, which would have been her 98^th birthday.

Although she was well-known as the eldest sibling of the family that inspired The Sound of Music, friends and family said she was defined by much more.

Von Trapp grew up touring the world with her family as a choral musical act led by her father, Captain Georg Ritter von Trapp.

After immigrating to the United States in 1943, the group toured the country. Von Trapp eventually settled in Glyndon, where she taught kindergarten at for more than50 years.

Close friends of von Trapp remembered her as a person of great faith, humor and compassion. Von Trapp’s great nieces Sofia, Melanie and Amanda and great nephew Justin shared memories and honored their great aunt with a rousing performance of "How Great Thou Art." After the service, guests gathered for a reception and to share stories of von Trapp’s life.

Her caregivers said she often discussed her life at great length with them. Sharon Bosice, one of von Trapp’s caregivers, said that she had a photographic memory and could still recall her touring days in detail.

“They toured a lot through the United States and she didn’t have a camera in those days,” Bosice said. “She could sketch, from memory, scenes from the bus they were riding on.”

Bosice said von Trapp was also a great artist. Many of her sketches illustrate her self-published memoir, Agathe von Trapp: Memories Before and After The Sound of Music.

The memoir was quite an accomplishment for von Trapp, Bosice said. In addition to the fact that English was not her native language, von Trapp struggled with dyslexia. Despite these challenges, friends said she was never afraid to take on new things.

In von Trapp’s memoir, she attempts to dispel the many inaccuracies that exist between her family and the Trapp’s from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. However, according to those who knew her well, she had only one major complaint with the way her family was portrayed.

“She thought her father was portrayed in a very poor light,” said Pat Calise, a caregiver. “One of the most important things to her was that people knew that her father was a good man. That’s why she wrote the book.”

Deborah Rollins, von Trapp’s only German-speaking nurse, said that there were several other discrepancies with the story, which von Trapp often noted.

“She always said, 'It was a nice story, but it wasn’t our story,'” she said. “The girl that played her in the film [Liesl] was 16, but she was 30 in reality in 1943.”

The choral arrangements the family had actually performed were quite different than the songs made famous by the film, Rollins said.

“They sang beautiful, beautiful music, but not at all related to the music that came from the film,” she said.

Family members also shared heartfelt memories at the service. Von Trapp’s great nephew, Justin von Trapp, said his great aunt was defined best by her faith and unwavering sense of humor.

“Her humor was so perfect for life,” he said. “She laughed at things most people wouldn’t. She definitely got through life laughing all the way.”

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