[DeadCelebrityAlert] Maria von Trapp, 99, dies in Vermont

 



Maria von Trapp, 99, dies in Vermont


STOWE, Vt. (AP) — Maria von Trapp, the last surviving member and second-eldest daughter of the musical family whose escape from Nazi-occupied Austria was the basis for "The Sound of Music," has died. She was 99.

Von Trapp died at her home in Vermont on Tuesday, according to her brother Johannes von Trapp.

"She was a lovely woman who was one of the few truly good people," he said. "There wasn't a mean or miserable bone in her body. I think everyone who knew her would agree with that."

Maria von Trapp was the last surviving member of the seven original Trapp Family Singers made famous in "The Sound of Music." She was portrayed as Louisa in the 1959 Broadway musical and a 1965 film, which won the Oscar for best picture.

She was the third child and second-oldest daughter of Austrian Naval Capt. Georg von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead von Trapp. Their seven children were the basis for the singing family in the musical and film.

"The Sound of Music" was based loosely on a 1949 book by von Trapp's second wife, also Maria von Trapp, who died in 1987. It tells the story of an Austrian woman who married a widower with seven children and teaches them music.

In 1938, the family escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria and performed concert tours throughout Europe and then a three-month tour in America. The family settled in Vermont in the early 1940s and opened a ski lodge in Stowe.

Von Trapp played accordion and taught Austrian dance with sister Rosmarie at the lodge.

She wrote in a biography posted on the Trapp Family's website that she was born in the Austrian Alps after her family fled fighting from World War I and that she was surrounded by music growing up.

"Father played the violin, accordion and mandolin. Mother played piano and violin," she wrote. "I have fond memories of our grandmother playing the piano for us after meals."

Her biography on the website also said that she worked as a lay missionary in Papua, New Guinea.

Rosmarie von Trapp, Johannes von Trapp and Eleonore Von Trapp Campbell were born to Georg von Trapp and Maria von Trapp.


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[DeadCelebrityAlert] Garrick Utley, 74

 

Garrick Utley, the son of a pioneering Chicago television news couple, began as a copy boy for the Chicago Sun-Times and rose to prominence as a globe-trotting correspondent for three networks, moderator of "Meet the Press" and weekend anchor of "NBC Nightly News" and "Sunday Today."
 
Utley, who was 74, died of prostate cancer Thursday at his home in New York, according to family. He passed "with the same grace and dignity he showed throughout his life and career," said Utley's sister-in-law, Chicago journalist Carol Marin.
 
Utley joined NBC News in 1963 as an assistant to John Chancellor in the network's Brussels bureau. The following year, he was assigned to the Saigon bureau, where he was among the first television correspondents to cover the Vietnam War. He went on to report from more than 70 countries, winning numerous honors including an Edward R. Murrow Award and George Foster Peabody Award.
 
After three decades at NBC News, Utley joined ABC News as London-based chief foreign correspondent. He later moved to CNN, where he co-anchored coverage of the September 11 attacks and served as a special correspondent and contributor.
 
His work for public broadcasting included hosting "America Abroad," a documentary series for Public Radio International, and "Live From the Met" opera broadcasts for PBS.
 
Utley most recently was a professor of broadcasting and journalism at State University of New York – Oswego and a senior fellow at the university's Neil D. Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations and Commerce, where he served as founding president from 2002 to 2011. He wrote You Should Have Been Here Yesterday, a book chronicling the growth of television news.
 
Born in Chicago in 1939, Utley was the son of Clifton and Frayn Utley, two of the city's most distinguished news commentators in print, on radio and on television in its earliest years. His first job in journalism was at the Sun-Times. A graduate of Westtown School and Carleton College, he spent a year studying Eastern European affairs at the Free University of West Berlin after serving in the U.S. Army.
Survivors include his wife of 41 years, Gertje R. Utley, two brothers, David Utley of Madison, Wisconsin, and Jonathan Utley of Chicago, four nephews, a niece and three god-children. Arrangements for a memorial service are pending.

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Recent Activity:
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interest in receiving the included
information for non-profit research and
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