Carol Jean Neal was born August 13, 1941 in Salina, Kansas, the daughter of Harold and Helen (Snider) Neal. Carol grew up in Salina and graduated with the class of 1959 from Salina High School.
She began a long career in banking at Boulevard State Bank in Wichita as a customer loan secretary, a position she held for 10 years. She worked 1 year as an office manager at Manpower Temp agency then she became a private banking assistant for Commerce Bank for over a decade. She completed her career as a secretary for the American Diabetes Association, which lasted 3 years.
She was also active in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization, American Heart Association, and volunteered at her sons’ school.
As a child, Carol enjoyed tap dancing and ice skating which shaped her lifelong love toward music and dance. She became an avid decades-long fan of Wichita Music Theatre and “Dancing with the Stars”. As an adult, Carol was a funny, easy-going, stylish woman who went through life forming tougher than nails relationships with those who became dear to her. These were her brothers Jerry D. Neal and James “Jim” Neal with their wives and children, cousins with whom she talked on the phone for hours while lying on the kitchen floor, friends with whom she shared her habitual evening walks, love toward high heeled shoes, and frequent get together parties, and devoted neighbors. However, the most special to her were her two sons: Kevin and Kyle, and then her grandchildren Keaton and Clarissa.
In her later years Carol became an unapologetically doting grandma. And when she was not busy spoiling her grandchildren behind their parents’ backs, she spent hours bragging about them while on a recumbent bike at the local YMCA.
Carol’s contagious sense of humor, beautiful smile and big hair, giving spirit, and love of Pepsi and peanut butter will be missed by all who knew her.
Preceding Carol in death were her parents and brothers.
Surviving family members include her sons, Kevin J. Breer and his wife Kelli, and Kyle A. Breer and his wife Kat, two surviving grandchildren, Keaton O. Breer and Clarissa J. Breer, as well as nieces, nephews, and many loving friends.
Memorials may be made in her name to the Wichita Music Theater, 225 W Douglas Ave, Wichita, KS 67202.
