By Daniel Lapham/Staff Writer
published Jan. 23, 2008

For Mike Crowley, faith, miracles and perseverance are synonymous with his life, taking him from the farms of the 1930s in Calumet and El Reno to the great opera houses of Europe in the 1950s.

Known to many as the “singing fisherman,” Crowley, 83, has lived a life many only dream and has walked through dark times that nightmares are made of, but today as he looked back, he “wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said.

“It all comes down to a motto I live by, ‘There is a destiny that makes us brothers. None goes his way alone. All that we send into the life of others comes back into our own.’ That is the creed I live by. That is why I just love to sing for the joy of others,” Crowley said.

The latest crowning achievement to Crowley’s lifelong journey through the professional opera circuit is a documentary on his life that will air on OETA Channel 13 at 11 a.m. Sunday and at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

“I was fishing out at Lake Hefner and people would come up and ask me to sing for them,” Crowley said about how the documentary came about. “The paper heard about it and the next thing I knew, OETA came up to me and asked if they could do a story on my life.”

And what a life it is. Born in Lamont and raised until he was 13 on a farm in Ponca City, Crowley started El Reno High School in 1939 and immediately became involved in the boys quartet, solidifying his love of music that would eventually take him to the stage before the queen of England.