Rupert von Trapp

Rupert Georg von Trapp, M.D. (1 November 1911 – 22 February 1992) was the firstborn child and eldest son of Georg von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead von Trapp. He was a member of the Trapp Family Singers, whose lives were the inspiration for the play and film The Sound of Music. He was portrayed as the character Friedrich.

Rupert Georg von Trapp
Rupert von Trapp, on the right, with his younger brother Werner, both wearing U.S. Army uniforms and reading sheet music, on 24 January 1946
Born(1911-11-01)1 November 1911
Pola, Istria, Austria-Hungary (present-day Pula, Croatia)
Died22 February 1992(1992-02-22) (aged 80)
Stowe, Vermont, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Vermont (1947)
OccupationSinger, Family Practitioner
Spouse(s)Henriette Lajoie
Janice Tyre
Children6
Parent(s)Georg von Trapp
Agathe Whitehead

Biography

He was born on 1 November 1911. His parents married in January 1911.[1][2] His father was Georg von Trapp and his mother was Agathe Whitehead von Trapp (1891–1922). He grew up in Zell am See during World War I with his siblings, Agathe von Trapp (1913–2010), Maria Franziska von Trapp (1914–2014), Werner von Trapp (1915–2007), Hedwig von Trapp (1917–1972), and Johanna von Trapp (1919–1994). The youngest sister, Martina von Trapp (1921–1951), was born in Klosterneuburg (Austria), whither the Trapp Family had moved from Zell-am-See because their home (a "lake hotel" called "Kitzsteinhorn") had been flooded. In 1922, von Trapp's mother died of scarlet fever and was buried in Klosterneuburg when Rupert was almost 11 years old. In 1925, the family moved to Salzburg-Aigen. Rupert entered a public school, together with Werner; his sisters went to the Ursuline covent.

The Trapp family rehearsing, 1941. Rupert is in the background, on the right.

In 1927, his father, a widower, married Maria Augusta Kutschera, the teacher of von Trapp's sisters Maria Franziska and Johanna. Georg and Maria Augusta had three children together: Rosmarie (1929[3]), Eleonore (1931), and Johannes (1939). Rupert studied medicine and became an Austrian citizen. Later, in the family chorus, he sang bass. In 1938 he had a possibility of a job in Vienna, but refused because the job was being taken away from a Jewish physician by the Nazis. The family left Austria in summer of this year and went to America. At the age of 27 Rupert went on tour with his siblings and his stepmother, and entered the army, together with Werner in 1942. Rupert and Werner eventually joined the U.S. Army (Rupert on 13 April 1943),[4][5] serving in Italy with the 10th Mountain Division.

Personal life

In 1947 he married his first wife, Henriette Lajoie (1927[6] – 13 April 2013), and left the family chorus. In the same year, he graduated from the University of Vermont.[7] Trapp became a naturalized United States citizen in 1948. He and Henriette had six children: Francoise, George, Monique, Elizabeth "Tizzy", Christopher,[8] and Stephanie. Trapp married his second wife, Janice Tyre (1920–1996), in 1977.

Death

Rupert von Trapp died in 1992, aged 80, and was buried at the Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont, next to his father, his stepmother, and his siblings: Werner, Hedwig, and Martina. He was survived by his wife and six children.

References
  1. Von Trapp, Georg (January 2007). To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander. ISBN 978-0-8032-4667-6. Not long after that Agathe, the oldest daughter, came down with scarlet fever. Her siblings also contracted the disease, and their mother nursed them. ... They were married on 10 January 1911, and lived in the Trapp villa in Pola, Austria. Their first child, Rupert Georg von Trapp, was born 1 November 1913, ...
  2. Gearin, Joan. "The Real Story of the von Trapp Family". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 5 January 2009. Georg married Agathe Whitehead, the granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, the inventor of the torpedo, in 1912.
  3. "The year of Rosmarie von Trapp's birth has been corrected to 1929. The year 1928 in the original version of this article was based on a mistyped date on the naturalization record." Gearin, Joan. "Movie vs. Reality: The Real Story of the von Trapp Family". National Archives and Records Administration.
  4. U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946: Rupert von Trapp. Ancestry.com, accessed March 2017.
  5. Ancestry.com. U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Accessed March 2017.
  6. Family tree via Rodovid. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  7. Catalogue. The University of Vermont. 1946. Rupert Von Trapp, 1947
  8. Nash, Margo (17 July 2005). "'The Sound of Music' Never Ends". New York Times. Retrieved 21 January 2009. Besides Ms. Karath, Greenwich has another Sound of Music connection. Sara Jane von Trapp, an administrator at Greenwich Academy, was once married to Christopher von Trapp, the son of the late Rupert von Trapp, one of the original brood. Kate von Trapp, 23, her daughter, grew up in Vermont, but in the 2003–2004 school year was a teaching intern at the Greenwich Academy. She is now an account executive for Clear Channel Communications and lives in Burlington, Vt.
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