Agathe von Trapp, the oldest daughter of Capt. Georg Ritter von Trapp, is shown in an undated photo. She died Tuesday. Agathe von Trapp, the oldest daughter of Capt. Georg Ritter von Trapp, is shown in an undated photo. She died Tuesday. (Mary Louise Kane/Associated Press)

Agathe von Trapp, one of two surviving members of the original Trapp Family Singers, has died. She was 97.

The story of the von Trapp family, headed by Austrian naval officer Capt. Georg Ritter von Trapp, inspired the stage musical and movie The Sound of Music.

Agathe von Trapp died Tuesday at a hospice in the Baltimore suburb of Towson, after suffering congestive heart failure in November according to her longtime friend, Mary Louise Kane.

She was the oldest daughter of Capt. von Trapp and one of the original seven children whose story was told in the 1965 film.

Her sister Maria, 96, and half-siblings Rosemarie, Johannes and Eleonore, who later sang with the family, are still alive.

Agathe's stepmother, Maria von Trapp, mother to Rosemarie, Johannes and Eleonore, wrote The Story of the Trapp Family Singers that inspired the original 1959 musical.

Agathe von Trapp, her father and stepmother and their family moved to the U.S. in 1938 to escape persecution by the Nazis over Capt. von Trapp's refusal to accept a naval commission.

Agathe von Trapp's autobiography is titled Memories Before and After the Sound of Music. (PublishAmerica)Agathe von Trapp's autobiography is titled Memories Before and After the Sound of Music. (PublishAmerica)

The family sang together all over the U.S. until 1947, when Capt. von Trapp died. Agathe sang soprano in the choir.

She later ran a kindergarten at the Sacred Heart Catholic parish in Glyndon, Md., where she made her home with Kane.

Kane said von Trapp objected to the portrayal of her father in the movie version of The Sound of Music, as he is shown as too strict.

"She cried when she first saw it because of the way they portrayed him," Kane said. "She said that if it had been about another family she would have loved it."

Agathe wrote her own memoir as a way of showing how loving and caring her father had been, Kane said.

She is the author of Agathe von Trapp: Memories Before And After The Sound Of Music, a 2003 autobiography that chronicles her family story with her own sketches and photos.

The Von Trapp Children, four great grandchildren of Captain and Maria von Trapp, continue to perform publically.

With files from The Associated Press