Perhaps best known for her role of Marta von Trapp in the 1965 Academy Award winning movie, The Sound of Music, (FYI, the 50th Anniversary is in 2015!)Debbie was raised in the city of Arcadia, California, where she worked in TV commercials and TV Shows from the age of only 6 months old until adulthood. For several years, Debbie did print and runway modeling, as well. She grew up in a showbiz family and her parents were both naturalized citizens from Manitoba, Canada, who moved to California in the early 50s. When Debbie was six, she was first runner up in the “Little Miss California” pageant.
After attending college at University of Southern California, she worked at Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah where she met her husband from Plymouth, Minn., Richard Larson. They married in 1980. She's currently living in a suburb of Minnesota and has four grown daughters, Brooke, Jamie, Angela and Kate. She has been a successful, upscale floral designer since the early 1990s and is internationally known for her floral arrangements and designing of events and weddings. In 2008, she was chosen as only one of four florists to design the flowers for the Republican National Convention, and in 2011 was chosen as one of only 3 float judges for the 2011 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade, a “once-in-a-lifetime” honor. In anticipation of the 50th Anniversary of The Sound of Music, Debbie designed an digital-impressionist artwork of The Sound of Music characters.
She continues to make appearances in movies and television when the opportunity arises. In the fall of 2015, she, along with her six Sound of Music siblings, will be honored by Salzburg, Austria with the Governor’s Medallion for their participation in contributing to the tourism of Austria.
PARADE MAGAZINE Debbie Turner, Wedding Advice & The Sound of Music