Rosalee Marshall began her career as Mayor of the Town of Cromwell rather unexpectedly. Back in early 2008, the then clerk and chief of police suddenly left town and the mayor had no board members left. Somehow Marilyn Itson got involved and recruited Rosalee Marshall and Ruth Elliott to come on board and help the mayor. Anyway, the ladies appointed Rosalee to serve as mayor and the three of them got to work. They found that the town was in a deep hole that would take a while to get out of.

The records had been shredded and disposed of for the whole year of 2008. These ladies began calling the Oklahoma Tax Commission and the IRS as well as the State Attorney’s office. They found the town was in debt to a tune of $50,000. The then clerk had not paid utility bills for almost the whole year!

With the ladies’ tenacity and the help of 2 or 3 men who donated money to pay unpaid utility bills, and a fund raiser that they held, things began to turn around.

Rosalee Marshall, as mayor, worked alongside Jeffrey Shelton, our town’s attorney and they began making headway to money being in the black instead of the red. Rosalee Marshall served the town of Cromwell for 14 years with most of these years being as mayor. She spent many long hours working to get the town back on its feet. She not only has served our town but is continuing to serve the Creek Nation Indian Community as Chairman of their group here in Cromwell and surrounding community.

Rosalee resigned her position as mayor and trustee at the end of our July 5th meeting. She said she is tired, and it is now someone else’s turn to serve. We are thankful to have her for such a long time serving our town and its needs. She was asked if she would come back just one more time and she said no, this is it. However, we were able to get her daughter to bring her up to our August 2 ^nd meeting as we wanted to surprise her with a plaque to show her our appreciation for her tireless work.