Carol Lanaghen may not have known from a young age how music would shape her life and open doors, but she readily accepted the opportunities that came her way.

Carol grew up in a small Louisiana town with her parents, younger brother and paternal grandparents. Her dad supervised a cotton warehouse, and her mother taught piano and played the organ in church. Carol remembers spending holidays at church and family celebrations. Her Christmas stocking usually contained tangerines, English walnuts, candy and fireworks.

In her youth, she bicycled all over town, swam in the nearby creek, and began piano lessons at age six. She loved school, played clarinet in the school band and had a part in the high school operetta. After graduating high school, she headed to college at Texas Women’s University and majored in music education. For several years, she taught music in elementary schools in Port Arthur, Texas, and Cody, Wyoming.

It was in Cody that she met her future husband, Frank, at a party. He had grown up in Cody and taught piano. Frank was playing the piano when she arrived at the party; Carol realized immediately that he was an exceptional pianist. They were married by Christmas, 1955, and the couple moved to Denver. Frank was the Music Master at Colorado Academy and she was the House Mother for residential boys ages 5 to 12 years. Frank moved into real estate and continued to play the piano and organ for churches.

Carol enjoyed teaching; she taught elementary classes at Colorado Academy and music in Denver Public Schools. Eventually, she opened her own primary school with a before – and after – school program in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. 

Carol and Frank raised two sons and a daughter who still live in the Denver area. She has 14 great-grandchildren with one on the way. After Frank retired, they couple moved to Salida where they lived for 20 years. Music was such a big part of their lives that they moved their two grand pianos to Salida. Frank and a friend played regularly at the house and delighted audiences with piano duets.

Carol recalled a time when the pastor of the Presbyterian church in Salida invited her to serve on the Session. Unsure that she was a good choice, Carol told the pastor she was “a questioner” who had been studying the work of Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan. The minister replied without hesitation that Carol was just the sort of person who would be a good fit on the Session.

One opportunity Carol embraced was learning to ride a horse at age 45. Her daughter owned a horse and as Carol explained, “I inherited the horse when my daughter moved on to boys!”  They moved the horse to Salida and enjoyed him for three decades. Carol learned to “ground train” horses who had been traumatized.

Carol still enjoys music, playing handbells, reading, knitting, following current events, planting the raised bed garden behind her house and tending to a community garden plot nearby. She also volunteers four mornings a week at a first-grade class. At Covenant Living, she attends lectures and classes taught by Karen and Frank Timmons and attends choral concerts in Arvada.  

The late John Low invited Carol to attend Montview, and she rode with him and his daughter to Montview on Sundays before the pandemic. She especially appreciates the music and theology at Montview. 

Carol credits her adventurous spirit to her mother who did not hesitate to move and try new experiences. Carol feels that her longevity and enjoyment of life is a combination of good genetics, a strong marriage, a positive outlook and her love of helping others. 

Asked about her faith, she commented: “My definition of God is a mystery that I trust.”

– Submitted by Brooke Durland