What happened to the von Trapp children’s birth mother?

The Trapp Family was a singing group formed by the family of former Austrian naval commander Georg von Trapp. The family achieved fame in their original singing career in their native Austria during the interwar period.

Georg von Trapp had seven children at the time of the death of his first wife, Agathe Whitehead, and in 1927 he married Maria Kutschera, who was twenty-five years his junior, and had three more children with her.

Both parts of the family were musical, and by 1935 the family was singing at the local church in Aigen, where they made the acquaintance of a young priest, Dr. Franz Wasner.

The priest encouraged their musical progress and taught them sacred music to add to the folk songs, madrigals, and ballads they were already singing.

What happened to the von Trapp children’s birth mother?

Von Trapp children’s birth mother died of complications during childbirth and had a stillborn daughter. Rosemarie worked as a singer and missionary in Papua New Guinea.

She most recently lived in Pittsburgh and had no children. She married Hugh David Campbell in 1954 and had seven daughters.