Crowley Celebrates 30 Years With OATS Transit

By superadmin | June 4, 2025

Marsha Crowley is pictured above at the Mansion Theater in Branson. Photograph submitted

Story from OATS Newsletter, Written by Marsha Crowley

Marsha Crowley works at our Northeast Office in Macon as an Operations Coordinator handling Medicaid transportation for Northeast Missouri.

This month Marsha celebrates 30 years with OATS Transit, going all the back to 1995. In her spare time, she is an avid traveler, a singer and plays the piano. I knew Marsha was very talented and I wanted to talk with her about her hobby. Marsha was eager to share her adventures, so this is her story in her own words……

“Music and travel are my two favorite things, so when I can combine them, there’s nothing better! Travel became a part of my life at a very young age; I’m told that I took my first vacation when I was only 6 months old. It was camping trip with my family, and they heated my bottle over a campfire. With such an early start at traveling, it only makes sense that I have worked for a transit company for 30 years!

My other passion, music, was lovingly inspired by my family. My mom, at almost 91 years of age, is still a church pianist/organist, my dad played guitar in a band, my maternal grandpa sang in a barbershop quartet, and my maternal grandma was quite the soprano ( She even sang on the WLS radio station out of Chicago “back in the day”.)

My musical abilities were encouraged when Mom taught me to play piano at age 5. I began teaching piano and playing for church services, funerals, weddings, school programs, and community musicals as early as age 15. Vocally, I can remember taking car trips and it just came natural for me to harmonize with Grandma. Therefore, one of my most cherished moments is when Grandma and I sang a duet at church, with Mom accompanying us on the piano.

With all this background in music and travel, it seems a natural progression that I now perform not only locally, but elsewhere in the United States, as well as abroad.

Some of my most enjoyable experiences have been my three vocal performances with a gospel choir at the Mansion Theater in Branson, two vocal performances at Carnegie Hall in New York City (photo above), and being asked to play the grand piano at the chapel of the Billy Graham Training Center in Asheville North Carolina.

Last year, on the week of July 4, I was honored to join a choir comprised of singers from all across the country as we performed at the Lincoln Memorial, the WWII Memorial, and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. I’ve made several trips to Europe, having visited Scotland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy. Some of those trips were just to see the sites; however, music played a part in a couple of them music played a part in a couple of them. “The Sound of Music” was the first musical I accompanied when I was in high school, so it has always been my favorite.

Needless to say, when I learned of a trip to Austria that featured the locations where the showed was filmed, I jumped at it! If you had been there at the same time, you would have seen me running down the hill singing “the hills are alive…” My 16-day adventure in Italy was one of the best experiences I have had so far.

At the time of that trip, I was singing and playing piano for a choir out of Memphis, Missouri. We performed in Venice, Florence, and Rome (We were given the amazing opportunity to sing for mass at the Vatican. What an emotional experience that was!) as well as touring Milan, Pompeii, and Capri, and swimming in the Mediterranean.

I do not take any of my experiences for granted. I realize how blessed I am. I have never suffered from stage fright, I’ve always been comfortable speaking or performing in front of crowds of any size, and I’m a people person.

In fact, I took a couple of international trips by myself, knowing that this was an opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. I feel that my personal life experiences have aided me in my work here at OATS Transit.

I am able to relate to riders, drivers, and contracting parties. I take advantage of any change I get to tell the public what a good service OATS Transit provides, and I’m proud to have worked here all these years!”

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