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The last of the famous Von Trapp siblings - who along with their father and the woman he hired to teach them - inspired the musical "The Sound of Music" - has died.

Maria Franziska - maiden name von Trapp - was 99.

The Von Trapps inspired the 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical which was turned into a classic film in 1965 starring Julie Andrews.

The last of the seven von Trapp brothers and sisters, Maria died in her sleep at her home in Vermont, Marianne Dorfer, a family friend who runs the von Trapp Villa Hotel, confirmed to the Austrian Times.

''It was a surprise that she was the one in the family to live the longest because ever since she was a child she suffered from a weak heart,'' Dorfer said.

''It was the fact that she suffered from this that her father decided to hire Maria von Trapp to teach her and her brothers and sisters.

That of course then led to one of the most remarkable musical partnerships of the last century.'

Born in 1914, Maria lived in Salzburg, Austria until 1938 when her family fled from the Nazis.

She was the second-eldest daughter of Baron von Trapp.

Following the death of Baron von Trapp's first wife, aspiring nun Maria Kutschera joined the family to teach the children, fell in love with the baron and married him in 1927.

A very musical family, the von Trapps toured Europe and the United States.

That would become their saving grace when they left to tour in 1938 and didn't return to Austria.

In 1942, the von Trapp family settled on a farm in Vermont. Maria returned to Salzburg in 2008 to visit her old family home as it opened as a hotel.