Nancy Keating, wife of late William J. Keating and the matriarch of a large family with deep and philanthropic ties to the Cincinnati area, has died at age 94.
She died peacefully at her home Friday, Son Mike Keating said in an email that she died peacefully at her home on Friday.
“Mom was very kind, very wise and had a wonderful sense of humor,” Mike Keating wrote. “She was always patient and calm with us. As they say, you can’t pick your parents, but we were so blessed and so fortunate to have mom and dad as our parents.”
Nancy Keating
Nancy Keating was president of her senior class and valedictorian at St. Ursula Academy in Cincinnati. She attended the University of Cincinnati, where she was active in student politics.
She served on the commission that marked Cincinnati’s 200th birthday and was a longtime soup kitchen and Meals on Wheels volunteer, her son wrote.
Her husband was a founding partner of a major law firm, was an assistant Ohio attorney general, judge and city council member, and was elected to the U.S. House in 1971. In 1974, he gave up his seat to become publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer.
He served on the AP’s board for 15 years from 1987 to 1992 and chaired the global news cooperative for the last five of those years. He held executive positions at Gannett, where he served as general counsel, a regional newspaper president, and architect of the joint operating agreement that combined the business operations of Detroit’s two competing daily newspapers.
William J. Keating attributed his success to his wife and her support, Mike Keating wrote.
“He would often say ‘It’s always Nancy and Bill Keating. I put her first because she was first to me in everything I ever did. She made me a better man,’” her son wrote.
She was preceded in death by her husband in 2020 and her son Bill Jr. in 2017.
Survivors include seven children, 28 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren.
The family plans private services and will have no visitation.
