Katherine Keating
{{Short description|American military servicewoman}}
{{For|the political advisor and daughter of Paul Keating|Paul Keating#Personal life}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix = Captain
| name = Katherine Keating
| image =
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|02|08}}
| birth_place = Pueblo, Colorado, United States
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|06|06|1922|02|08}}
| death_place = Beulah, Colorado
| placeofburial = Beulah, Colorado
| allegiance = United States of America
| branch = Navy
| serviceyears = 1942–1972
| rank = Captain
| unit = Navy Medical Service Corps
| battles = World War II
| awards = Meritorious Service Medal
U.S. Surgeon General's Certificate of Merit
Colorado Women's Hall of Fame
| laterwork = Owner, KK Ranch and Carriage Museum
}}
Katherine "Kay" Keating (February 8, 1922 – June 6, 2009) was an American military servicewoman, pharmacist, female veterans activist and business owner. She served with the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) in World War II and subsequently with the Navy Medical Service Corps. She achieved several milestones during her military career, including being the first female pharmacist in the US Navy, the first woman in the US Navy to advance in rank from seaman to captain, and the first female pharmacist to attain the rank of captain. After her retirement from active service, she operated a bed and breakfast and horse ranch in Beulah, Colorado. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2008.
Early life and education
Katherine Keating was born in Pueblo, Colorado, on February 8, 1922, to Lawrence and Cecil Keating.{{cite web |url=https://www.veteranstodayarchives.com/2009/06/09/the-exceptional-life-of-katherine-quot-kay-quot-keating/|title=The Exceptional Life of Katherine "Kay" Keating|first=Juan|last=Espinosa|date=9 June 2009|access-date=11 May 2018|work=Veterans Today}} She had one brother and one sister. In 1940 she graduated from Central High School and in 1942, from Pueblo Junior College. She enrolled at the University of Colorado but interrupted her studies to enlist in the WAVES in 1942.{{cite web |url=http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/pharmacy/AboutUs/OurCommunity/Profiles/Pages/KatherineKeating.aspx|title=Profiles: Katherine Keating|publisher=University of Colorado|year=2018|access-date=11 May 2018}} After World War II ended, she returned to the university and earned a B.S. in pharmacy studies in 1948.
Military career
Upon enlisting in the WAVES in 1942, Keating trained as a radio operator and was posted to Hawaii, where she monitored radio signals and typed out code translations. She sometimes worked out of an underground station located in a pineapple field.
Back in Colorado after the war, she served in the United States Naval Reserve. In 1948 she re-enlisted in the navy to pursue a military career, and in 1950 became the first woman commissioned to the Navy Medical Service Corps.{{sfn|Witt|Bellafaire|Granrud|2005|p=135}}
File:USS Haven (AH-12) on 19 January 1954 (NH 98796).jpg anchored in Inchon Harbor, 1954]]
During the Korean War, Keating served on the USS Haven, a hospital ship which evacuated wounded American soldiers from Korea to US military hospitals in Japan. In addition to her pharmacist duties, Keating performed guard duty, cryptography, and officer training.{{sfn|Witt|Bellafaire|Granrud|2005|p=135}} In 1953, she served as an official "disinterested witness" for a prisoner of war exchange that took place aboard the ship under the auspices of the United Nations.{{sfn|Witt|Bellafaire|Granrud|2005|p=135}} In 1954, the ship evacuated wounded French Foreign Legion paratroopers after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
During the Vietnam War, Keating was assigned to U.S. naval hospitals in Japan.
Keating went on to serve as Chief of Pharmacy Service for six naval hospitals. She also lectured at the Pharmacy Technician School in San Diego, California.
She achieved several milestones during her tenure in the Navy Medical Service Corps, including being the first female pharmacist in the US Navy, the first woman in the US Navy to advance in rank from seaman to captain, and the first female pharmacist to attain the rank of captain. She was also "the first woman in the Medical Service Corps to go to sea, and the first woman officer to replace a male officer at sea". She retired from active service in 1972.
Business owner
After leaving the navy, Keating settled in Beulah, Colorado, where she ran a bed and breakfast and horse ranch called the KK Ranch and Carriage Museum.{{sfn|Stark|Hanson|Ilse|1996|p=31}} Her horse-drawn carriages were popular at parades, weddings, and funerals.{{cite web |url=https://www.chieftain.com/news/pueblo/holiday-commission-notes-half-century-of-honoring-king/article_34b771b8-75b9-564d-8817-2b9f1c630211.html|title= Holiday Commission notes half-century of honoring King|first=Jon|last=Pompia|date=13 January 2018|access-date=11 May 2018|work=The Pueblo Chieftain}} A display of her carriages and gear is featured at the Pueblo Heritage Museum.{{cite web |url=https://www.theheritagecenter.us/kay-keating-carriages|title=Kay Keating Carriages|publisher=Pueblo Heritage Museum|year=2018|access-date=11 May 2018}}
Keating also worked for recognition of female veterans. In the 1990s, she was the biggest fund-raiser for the Colorado section of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial established at Arlington National Cemetery.
Awards and honors
Keating's military honors include the Meritorious Service Medal and the U.S. Surgeon General's Certificate of Merit as a pharmacist.
The City Council of Pueblo declared March 24, 2006, as "Kay Keating Day". Keating was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2008.{{cite web |url=http://www.cogreatwomen.org/project/katherine-keating/|title=Capt Katherine Keating|year=2018|access-date=11 May 2018|work=Colorado Women's Hall of Fame}} Also in 2008, she was the honorary parade marshal for the Colorado State Fair.
Personal life
Keating never married. At one point, while she was on active duty, she raised her sister's two children through their teenage years.
She died on June 6, 2009, in Pueblo. Her oral history on her experiences in three wars is part of the Katherine Keating Collection at the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress.{{cite web |url=https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/bib/loc.natlib.afc2001001.10522|title=Katherine Keating Collection|publisher=Veterans History Project|date=24 February 2017|access-date=11 May 2018}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
Sources
- {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egvBIupOqc8C&q=katherine+keating |title=Absolutely Every (Almost) Bed and Breakfast in Colorado|editor-first=Alan |editor-last=Stark|editor2-first=Carl|editor2-last=Hanson|editor3-first=Travis|editor3-last=Ilse|year=1996|edition=4th|publisher=Travis Ilse Publishers|isbn=1882092198}}
- {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2Axj4NbJ0YC&pg=PA135|title=A Defense Weapon Known To Be Of Value: Servicewomen of the Korean War Era|first1= Linda |last1=Witt|first2=Judith|last2=Bellafaire|first3=Britta |last3=Granrud|year=2005|publisher=UPNE|isbn= 1584654724}}
{{Colorado Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keating, Katherine}}
Category:Pharmacists from Colorado
Category:20th-century American pharmacists
Category:Female United States Navy officers
Category:University of Colorado Denver alumni
Category:People from Pueblo, Colorado
Category:Military personnel from Colorado
Category:Businesspeople from Colorado
Category:American women pharmacists
Category:United States Navy captains
Category:United States Navy reservists
Category:Recipients of the Meritorious Service Medal (United States)