Palm Springs woman officially identified as victim in 9/11 attacks
The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified Barbara Keating, a 72-year-old grandmother and longtime public servant, as one of the victims aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower. It was the first plane to hit the twin towers in New York.
Along with Keating, officials also identified Ryan Fitzgerald of Floral Park, New York, and an adult woman whose name is being withheld at her family's request.
Their identifications bring the total number of 9/11 victims confirmed through DNA analysis of recovered remains to 1,653 — a figure that represents just over half of the 2,753 people killed at the World Trade Center. These are the first new identifications made since January 2024, OCME said.
Keating split her time between Cape Cod and Palm Springs, where she lived in Canyon Sands, a condo community. She was known for attending daily Mass at St. Theresa Catholic Church and driving a red Sebring convertible, always with the top down, KESQ reported.
"She was a wonderful woman, always had a smile on her face," said Rev. Philip Behan, then-pastor of St. Theresa Catholic Church, where Keating worked as a receptionist in the parish office, according to her obituary.
Keating could always "be found at the pool with her martini, spouting her strong opinions on politics, church and rules," her former neighbor Bette King previously told The Desert Sun. King later planted a lemon tree in Keating's honor at the corner of Gene Autry Trail and Highway 111, just outside of Canyon Sands.
A New Jersey native, she was smart, tough, professional and funny — the kind of person you didn't talk back to, said her son Paul, one of her five children, in an interview with The New York Times for its "Portraits of Grief" series.
"The joke was she could always find a restaurant with a good martini," he said. She liked hers dry, with two olives.
A widow and two-time breast cancer survivor, Keating spent 25 years in public service — including 10 years as executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Middlesex, The New York Times reported. She planned her time around regular visits with her 12 grandchildren in Texas, Massachusetts and California.
Toward the end of her stay in Massachusetts in the summer of 2001, her son Michael later told the Telegram & Gazette, the family held a cookout at his younger brother's home — the last gathering they would share with their mother.
"My emotions have run the gamut over the years," Michael Keating said in a 2011 story. "You go from total shock when it happened, to anger, to a sense of painful loss. You keep asking yourself how something like this could happen and wonder why it happened. Every time this anniversary comes up it always reminds me of what my mother missed out on, especially seeing her grandchildren grow up.'
After the death of her husband, William, in 1983, Keating relocated from Cape Cod to Palm Springs in 1996 but would return to Massachusetts for the summer to visit.
A close friend, Eunice Maloney, described Keating's quiet kindness to The New York Times, recalling how she would drive others to their cancer treatments. Maloney said she last spoke with her about five days before the attack, as Keating prepared to return to California from a trip to see her grandchildren on the East Coast.
"She told me she was very happy with her life," Maloney said. "Later she left me a note that said she was very glad for my friendship. I thought maybe she wouldn't be coming back to the Cape. Little did I know."
Jennifer Cortez covers education in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at jennifer.cortez@desertsun.com.
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