Werner von Trapp passed away at his home in Waitsfield, Vermont on October 11, 2007. He was 91.
Werner von Trapp was born in Zell am See, Austria in 1915, the fourth
child and second son of Captain Georg von Trapp and his first wife,
Agathe Whitehead. He studied cello at Salzburg’s Mozarteum in the
1930’s, and became proficient on several other instruments, as well as
in the art of composing and arranging. He sang tenor with his family’s
choir, The Trapp Family Singers, who won great acclaim throughout Europe
after their debut in 1935.
In 1938, when von Trapp was 23, his family courageously escaped from
Nazi occupied Austria. As refugees, the family arrived in New York where
they quickly became popular with concert audiences. They performed in
the U.S. and thirty other countries until 1956.
In 1943 von Trapp entered the U.S. Army, serving in Europe with the ski
troops as part of the 10th Mountain Division. After the war, Werner von
Trapp returned to his family’s farm in Stowe, Vermont and resumed
touring with the family choir. On a hillside behind the family home, von
Trapp built a stone chapel in thanksgiving for his safe return from
wartime service. In 1948 he married Erika Klambauer, a childhood friend
of his sister, Martina.
When the Trapp Family Singers retired from the stage, Werner von Trapp
helped to found a music school in Reading, Pennsylvania called the
Community School of Music. Several years later he brought his family
back to the Green Mountain State and eventually settled on a dairy farm
in Waitsfield. With the help of his wife and six children he farmed
until his retirement in 1979. He then devoted his time to his family, to
his love of traveling, and to his lifelong hobbies of weaving,
spinning, and crocheting.
Despite his distinguished musical career, Werner von Trapp was a modest
man with a humble response to his fame and musical and personal
achievements.
He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Erika von Trapp, and by his six
children, Barbara Crandall, Martin von Trapp, Bernhard von Trapp,
Elisabeth von Trapp, Tobias von Trapp, Stefan von Trapp and their
spouses, and by eighteen grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. He is
survived also by his sisters, Agathe von Trapp, Maria Franziska von Trapp,
Rosmarie von Trapp, and Eleonore Campbell, and by a brother Johannes
von Trapp, and many nieces and nephews.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated from Our Lady of the Snows
Catholic Church in Waitsfield on Tuesday, October 16th at
1 p.m. with interment to follow in the von Trapp family cemetery in
Stowe. Friends may call at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in
Waitsfield on Monday from 6 – 8 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts
would be appreciated to Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice,
600 Granger Road, Barre, VT 05641. |
