Carol Frances Wyatt was born in Marshall, Texas, on October 20, 1943, to Charles Wyatt and Mildred Hills Wyatt. After her parents divorced, Carol and her mother moved to Denton, where they lived with Carol’s grandmother and aunt until Mildred obtained a teaching job in Port Neches. After moving there, Mildred married Earl Strube, and the family grew to include Carol’s sister, Sharla, and brother, Kent. Carol—known during her youth as Carol Frances Strube Wyatt—attended Port Neches-Groves High School, where she served as Co-Captain of the Indianettes and participated in many school activities before graduating in 1961. She went on to Baylor University on a voice scholarship and earned her B.A. in Music under opera instructor Tina Piazza, who later recommended her to Maestro Japelli of the La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy.

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After several years of study at La Scala, Carol launched her career as a mezzo-soprano, performing throughout Europe and North America with artists such as Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo. She made her official stage debut at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo as Amneris in Aida. In the early 1970s, Christoph von Dohnányi engaged her at the Frankfurt Opera House, and soon after, August Everding and Horst Stein brought her to the Hamburg State Opera, where she expanded her repertoire of dramatic mezzo-soprano roles. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she became one of the most sought-after mezzo-sopranos in Germany and Europe, holding long-term contracts with the Hamburg State Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin while also appearing in Cologne, Düsseldorf–Duisburg, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Hannover, Munich, and Vienna. Her signature roles included Amneris, Princess Eboli, Azucena, Santuzza, Dorabella, and Marina, and she appeared in productions such as Carmen, Hansel and Gretel, Don Carlos, Oedipus, and Boris Godunov.

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Her international engagements took her to the Spoleto Festival, Florence, Dublin, Leeds, Toronto, Belgrade, Split, Cincinnati, Portland, San Diego, New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, and major concert halls across Europe. She sang Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Göttingen Handel Festival and the Hamburg Musikhalle, where she also performed Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Passions, Verdi’s Requiem, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony annually. She additionally performed soprano repertoire, including Laura in Schubert’s Die Freunde von Salamanka at the Schubertiade in Hohenems and the soprano role in Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony in Turin. For RAI Torino she recorded Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14. In 1986, she debuted as Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio, later followed by her role debut as Marie in Alban Berg’s Wozzeck in Switzerland. Her repertoire also included contemporary works by Stravinsky, Bernstein, and Berio, performed with both the Vienna Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic.

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In the early 1980s, Carol experienced a deep spiritual renewal and began studying the Bible and the works of well-known Christian teachers. Inspired by her growing love for the Jewish people, she began developing a vision of using music as a bridge to bring hope to those living in conflict—especially in Jerusalem, where Jewish, Arab, and Christian communities often collided. Believing music could reach hearts where words could not, she sought to use her operatic gifts in ministry settings. After more than twenty years as a professional singer, Carol returned to the United States to pursue formal ministry training at Rhema Bible College in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She established Song of Joy Ministry in 2000, became an ordained Christian minister in 2003, and completed chaplaincy training through the International Fellowship of Chaplains. She later worked with the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, participating in the Feast of Tabernacles celebrations through music and dance.

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Her European reputation grew not only for her artistry but for her openly expressed Christian faith and support for Israel. In 1996, she was invited as a featured soloist at the Jerusalem 3000 Jubilee Festival. Carol believed deeply that music could prepare hearts to receive God’s love, and she applied that philosophy to every aspect of her ministry, including her pioneering work reaching Alzheimer’s patients through song. In 2018, she attended the first Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast and continued as part of the organization. She also co-founded the Wilberforce 3 Speakers Bureau to mentor women seeking to make an impact in their communities.

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Carol developed a special affection for Holocaust survivors, calling her time ministering to them the greatest joy of her life. She frequently organized teams of Christian musicians from around the world to perform throughout Israel in churches, concert halls, and retirement communities. Her ministry also took her to the United States, Russia, Germany, and even into the Arctic Circle to minister among nomadic reindeer herders. She continued singing for Alzheimer’s patients wherever she traveled and recorded Timeless Classics, a CD of her favorite hymns, as part of her ministry work.

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Carol spent her later years living in the United States, actively serving in her church community and continuing her music-based ministry until the end of her life.