Frank Keating of Levittown: A hero to his family and New York City

Retired NYPD homicide detective Frank Keating of Levittown will always be a hero to his wife and children, and not just because he helped evacuate scores of Queens residents from their homes before a massive gas-leak explosion ripped apart a two-square-block section in Jamaica in 1967. 

Keating will also always be their hero, his family said, because of the gifts he gave them before he died on April 11: a love of books, golf and fishing, a hunger for the outdoors and adventure, dedication to family, a strong work ethic and a deep devotion to the Catholic faith. 

“I married the most wonderful man in the world,” said Joan Keating, who met Frank when they were both third-graders at St. Joseph’s School in Astoria and was married to him for 64 years. “I still love him dearly.”

Frank Keating, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease a few years ago, died in a residential care facility on April 11, a day after he came down with a high fever, his family said. The cause of death is listed as probable coronavirus. He was 88 years old. 

“My father was a spectacular man,” said son Kevin Keating, a prominent Long Island criminal defense attorney. 

Frank Keating grew up in Astoria, a child of immigrants from County Clare, Ireland. He joined the Air Force after graduating from high school and was stationed in Korea during the Korean War. Keating and Joan got married after he was discharged from the service. Keating joined the NYPD, a job his family says he loved. 

“He loved serving the public,” his son Stephen Keating said. “He loved serving the city.” 

Frank Keating and his partner, Jack O’Connor, were on patrol at 5:20 a.m. on Jan. 13, 1967, when a dispatcher told them to check out reports of a gas leak on 101st Avenue in Queens. 

“When we got to 101st and Allendale Street, we heard a tremendous noise, like jet exhaust coming from a manhole,” Keating told Newsday in 1967. “We called for emergency equipment and started knocking on doors, shouting ‘This is the police. Get out of your homes right away.’ ”

Other cops and firefighters arrived on the scene and helped Keating and O’Connor clear the area. The gas erupted at 5:30 a.m., followed by a 13-alarm fire. O’Connor, according to Newsday, said the explosion looked and sounded like an atomic bomb. Witnesses said flames shot 300 to 400 feet in the air. Manhole covers shot into the air. The heat could be felt several blocks away. 

“It was like being in hell,” one resident said. 

Some police officers and firefighters were knocked down by the explosion but nobody was hurt or killed. Keating and O’Connor were heralded as heroes, honored a few days after the explosion in a ceremony at City Hall by Mayor John V. Lindsay, who pinned exceptional merit bars on their uniforms and gave them the keys to the city. Stephen Keating remembers the family piling into a limousine that took them to Manhattan, and being interviewed by legendary newsman Gabe Pressman.

Frank Keating was promoted to homicide detective not long after the explosion. 

“That is where he found his passion,” Stephen Keating said. “He loved the challenge of it. His mind was wired for police work and investigating. He liked to probe."

Frank Keating was hired as director of corporate security for the Bank of New York after he retired from the NYPD, a position he held for 20 years until his retirement in 1997. He spent much of the rest of his life traveling with his wife, reading philosophy and theology books and enjoying life with those he loved. 

The coronavirus pandemic made it difficult to give Keating the type of wake and funeral Mass his life deserved, said his daughter, Marianne Cook. But when the hearse carrying Keating’s coffin from the funeral home to the cemetery passed by the family’s longtime home, the neighbors were lined up along the street.

“He made such an impact on their lives,” Cook said. “Just the other day, we received a dogwood tree from our neighbor and her granddaughter, who in their note said, ‘He was such a fine gentleman.’ It’s just amazing, the impact he had on people.”