Carol Evangeline Neighbor was born in Wichita on November 17th 1938 to Charles and Alva Neighbor.  She was their only child.  Her dad sold insurance for Continental Life and her mother was an Elementary school teacher.  Carol attended West High when it first opened and was part of the first class to go through all the grades.  During this time she took up the clarinet and played in the concert and marching bands.

After high school she attended Wichita State majoring in music.  She was encouraged to try the string bass and received a BA in music performance.  After graduation she married Dale Hellar and they had two daughters; Treva and Paula.  While raising her family she worked with autistic children at Logopedics and as a Fuller Brush salesperson going door to door.  She later got a job with the Wichita Public Library in the Art and Music Dept.  She liked it so much that she eventually became the music librarian; a job she eventually retired from.

Carol loved early music and played the recorder with the Wichita Recorder Society.  She had a fine singing voice and she helped start "Principal Voices", an a cappella group dedicated to polyphonic vocal music.  One of the places they performed at was the Shakespeare birthday celebration held at Botanica.

She joined the Wichita Symphony Orchestra in 1958 and played bass there for 43 years. She also served for 10 years as the orchestra's librarian.

Carol married her present husband Greg Golding in 1996.  The two started playing at "R" Coffeehouse and Anna Murdoch's where they performed a wide variety of music from Bach to Jazz.  During this time she became interested in poetry.  She helped found "Poetry Aloud" a group of people dedicated to writing original works.

She became an Episcopalian and provided special music at St. Marks in Wichita.  Open to other spiritual quests, she became interested in Unitarianism. She was hired by the 1st UU church as pianist and choir director.  During this time she founded a recital series with the support of the church. This lasted 20 years and featured many musicians from the community.  Carol was a great organizer and she helped found a number of musical groups including Suntreader; a group that played Irish and Klee music.

One of the great joys of her life was connecting with her father's children from his first marriage.  Her step-siblings Katherine, Charles and Howard became a big part of her life.  Their children Jonelle, Keith, Chris, Chad, Diane and Dana and Kit and Nora had become a part of her extended family.

For the past 3 years, Carol had been suffering from cancer.  She went through treatment and eventually passed on August 19th 2025.  She was a generous and selfless person.  A loving person who gave so much to the community.  She will be dearly missed.  She is survived by her husband Greg and 5 grandchildren Nita, Vincent, Aaron, Rachel and Ian as well as 4 great grandchildren Silas, Joanna, Alyssa, Issac and one that's on the way.  A memorial service will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 12:00 pm on Saturday September 20th.