9/11 victim Barbara Keating died when her flight struck the North Tower. Her remains have finally been identified, 24 years later

When mourners gathered in a Southern California church for Barbara Keating’s November 2001 memorial service, an urn was placed at the altar.

The ashes inside were not those of the 72-year-old grandmother, The Desert Sun reported. Instead, they came from the rubble of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, where Keating died on September 11 – one of nearly 3,000 people killed in the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.

In the 24 years since, Keating’s youngest son, Paul Keating, said he held little hope his mother – among the 1,100 victims whose remains had yet to be identified – would be found in the debris. But late this summer, the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner contacted his family with news:

DNA analysis had positively identified the matriarch’s remains.

‘A bleeding heart’

Barbara Kinsey grew up in Salem, New Jersey, near the east bank of the Delaware River, where Paul said his grandfather owned the town’s only hotel and bar. “She basically grew up in a bar,” said Paul, now 61, noting his mother and her younger brother each had their own rooms in the building.

It was in Salem that Keating met her childhood sweetheart and future husband, William Keating III, a rocket scientist, Paul said. “Bill and Barb,” as they were known, eventually moved to Massachusetts, where they raised their five children.

They were “perfect” parents. Each child was encouraged to pursue “anything we were good at,” Paul said, resulting in what he called an “oddball collection” of talented, brainy children – musicians, scientists and a linguist among them. Paul was the “token athlete.”

“They always thought it was so humorous that I was an athlete,” said the one-time collegiate shortstop and second baseman, laughing. “They thought that was so useless.”

The Keatings were “old school Massachusetts Democrats,” their son said – politically moderate but tough. His mother, however, was “a bleeding heart,” deeply sympathetic to social causes – a throughline reflected in her professional life.

When Paul was growing up, Keating led the local chapter of an organization dedicated to helping people with intellectual disabilities. She later served as executive director of the local Big Brothers Big Sisters, a role she held until her retirement.

Barbara Keating dances with her brother, Jack Kinsey, in 1995. Courtesy Paul Keating

Meanwhile, Keating faced her own share of hardship. She survived two bouts with breast cancer, and in 1983, lost her husband suddenly to a brain tumor, Paul said. But she never complained, always believing there were others worse off.

“Don’t blame your situation on anyone, and you overcome it,” he said, channeling his mother’s worldview. “You do what you have to do. You continue on with your mission.”

In her later years, Keating was a snowbird, splitting her time between Massachusetts and Palm Springs, California. Although she continued to spend summers on the East Coast, she eventually moved to Palm Springs. She had family in Southern California and, after her illness, Keating felt better breathing the desert air, Paul said.

There, her life revolved around her church. A lifelong Catholic, Keating spent dozens of hours a week volunteering, her son said. But she still found ways to enjoy retirement. After her death, newspaper reports noted she was remembered for her pool parties and martinis, which a monsignor said she enjoyed with lots of olives.

She also took to driving a convertible: Her late husband had loved convertibles, Paul said. Once in the desert, she realized she was “almost overdue” for her own, since she could drive it year-round.

“She would drive the convertible in the desert, garage it, and fly to New England,” Paul said.

A plume of smoke

Keating was wrapping up one of her many East Coast trips in the days before 9/11, Paul said. Every night of the week prior, he said, his two sons – then 6 and 3 – had fallen asleep on their grandmother as she read to them at bedtime.

On that clear Tuesday morning, Paul and his mother both left his home early. She headed to Boston Logan International Airport to catch American Airlines Flight 11 to Los Angeles while he drove to Stamford, Connecticut, to meet a client.

When they heard a plane had struck the World Trade Center, Paul said, he and his clients went to the rooftop and looked out at the New York City skyline, where they saw a plume of smoke rising from the North Tower.

“I had no idea it was my mother’s plane,” he said.

His memory of the weeks that followed is a blur, he said. There were two memorial services – one a week later in Framingham, Massachusetts, and a second service in Palm Springs. Intense media attention made Keating’s death even more surreal, he said.

“I don’t remember any of the interviews we did, or questions we were asked,” he said. “I don’t remember any of it.”

Keating’s death was especially hard on her grandsons, Paul said, recalling their panicked cries – “Don’t leave, don’t leave” – each time he and his wife left the house. “They slept together in the same room for probably a year.”

Paul does remember touring Ground Zero soon after the attack, as firefighters and construction workers sifted through the debris, with some small fires still smoldering.

“They were just beside themselves,” he said of the workers. “Some of them wanted to touch me – that’s how upset they were. And I got it. They felt personally offended.”

In his mind, it was that same spirit – a mix of outrage and grief – that has fueled the medical examiner’s quest to identify the 9/11 victims.

‘A solemn promise’

Even without a definitive identification of his mother’s remains, Paul said there were discoveries that gave him a sense of closure: Several years after the attack, he said, investigators found an ATM card that belonged to his mother.

Then, about three years ago, the OCME reached out to the family again, asking them to submit DNA to test against a hairbrush they thought might be Keating’s. It was a positive match.

“That’s when it really hit home: These people have been doing this for that long, at that level of effort,” Paul said.

But the recent identification of his mother’s actual remains has brought things “somewhat full circle” for the family, Paul said. According to the medical examiner, the identification was confirmed through DNA tests of remains recovered in 2001.

The 9/11 memorial tribute lights illuminate the Manhattan skyline on September 11, 2024. Thomas Hengge/NurPhoto/Getty Images

“It does actually bring it to conclusion,” he said, reflecting on the hundreds of families still awaiting the same sense of resolution. “I hope the same for the families that haven’t heard so far.”

While his family did not need further proof of his mother’s death, he praised the medical examiner’s office for its dedication to the families of those killed on 9/11, expressing a sense of deep appreciation that underscores how meaningful that work still is to victims’ families.

“It was personal to them, and they felt like they were on a mission for us.”

The medical examiner’s office publicly announced Keating’s identification in August, along with those of 26-year-old Ryan Fitzgerald and a woman whose name was withheld at her family’s request.

Their identifications, the first since January 2024, were made possible by advances in DNA science, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham told WILLHOST. Breakthroughs have allowed his office to “work with smaller amounts of DNA,” and to “obtain DNA from very degraded samples” that previously would have been unusable, he said.

“This office made a very solemn promise to the families of the victims who were lost on September 11th, 2001,” he said, “to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to identify their loved ones and return them to their families.”

“This is work that is ongoing, and it’s a commitment to that solemn promise we made to the families,” Graham said.

‘A debt of gratitude’

Keating would have found it admirable.

“She always admired people who were dogged in their pursuit of whatever it is they did with their lives,” said Paul. “She would be really, really impressed with this group that works on our behalf.”

Now, the Keating family is making plans for their mother’s remains. Some, Paul said, will be kept at the site of the World Trade Center, where the medical examiner maintains a repository for victims, accessible only to staff. A nearby space, called the Reflection Room, gives families a place to visit.

Barbara Keating’s family plans to keep some of her remains at the World Trade Center site, her son said. Courtesy Paul Keating

The rest of her remains will be laid to rest with her husband.

“My mom was just a superwoman who certainly should not have been murdered in that way,” Paul told WILLHOST. “The City of New York, and the medical examiner’s office, the state of New York – we’ll always have a connection and a debt of gratitude for everything they’ve done every step of the way.”

“They have given us a form of closure … and we deeply, deeply appreciate it.”