[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23640]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO MARY KEATING

 Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, today I celebrate the life of 
Mary Keating, who, until she passed away last October, was a proud 
resident of the city and great State of New York for nearly 78 years. 
Mary first came to America at the young age of 17, far from her home 
and her family in Derry, Kilshanny, County Clare, Ireland. Not long 
after she arrived, she met and married Martin Keating, who also hailed 
from County Clare. She and Martin shared many passions, most notably 
their love for their family, their friends, and their deep, abiding 
faith in God. While neither of them were musicians, they relished the 
Irish country sets of their native Clare and carried them with them to 
this country, eventually to meet and dance them on the Rockaway Beach 
boardwalks, which as far as they were concerned was simply the last 
parish in Clare. As one of her youngest grandchildren, Ronan, observed, 
if you visited their home you would find a layer of dust on the top of 
the knob on their radio because it had not been moved from its resting 
spot on the Irish music station in decades.
  Music was not the only way that Mary celebrated her Irish heritage. 
It also could be found in her love to entertain friends and family. It 
was well known in their neighborhood and beyond that there was always 
an extra spot at the dinner table in the Keating home. As Mary would 
say, ``what is one extra potato in the pot?'' One could never visit her 
home without enjoying at least a cup of tea and an assortment of food. 
Three generations of Keatings grew up savoring her specialties such 
Irish soda bread, turnips, and leg of lamb. Much to their chagrin, her 
daughters and granddaughters have never been able to make a soda bread 
half as delicious as Mary's, simply because the ``recipe'' was all done 
by taste and memory. As her granddaughter Kristin noted, the only one 
of Mary's dishes her grandchildren will not miss is her ``lumpy'' 
mashed potatoes, especially since Martin was a firm believer in the 
notion that children should finish everything they are served.
  Mary will be remembered by all who knew her as a strong and caring 
woman who lived a life guided by her faith and values. Long before 
recycling became the politically correct thing to do, Mary Keating 
saved and reused every bread bag, rubber band, piece of tinfoil, and 
jar she ever brought into the house. Old jelly jars were magically 
transformed into milk glasses and bread bags were used to store 
everything from school lunch to sea shells from Rockaway Beach.
  Even though Mary has left this world, her legacy will continue 
through the lives and work of her 8 children, 20 grandchildren, and 24 
great-grandchildren. I know this because her granddaughter, Kathleen 
Keating Strottman, served as my staff for over 7 years and I saw many 
of these traits in her. In honor of Mary's Irish heritage, I would like 
to close my remarks with the refrain of an Irish ballad, ``The Lovely 
Rose of Clare'':

       Oh my lovely rose of Clare, you're the sweetest girl I 
     know, You're the queen of all the roses, the pretty flowers 
     that grow, You are the sunshine of my life, so beautiful and 
     fair, And I will always love you, my lovely rose of 
     Clare.

                          ____________________