Governor

In the wake of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murray Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating seemed to strike the right note. Grim, but not gloomy; outraged, yet utterly composed. The tragedy took its toll on the governor, but he has emerged as something of an accidental political celebrity, having been a guest host on CNN’s Larry King Live and receiving scores of offers for speaking engagements across the U.S. 

Politically, Keating is more eclectic than moderate. In the 1970s he was the only Republican in the legislature who voted to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a state holiday. After a failed bid for Congress in 1984, Keating moved with his family to Washington, where he held a series of mid-level posts in the Reagan and Bush administrations. In 1993 he returned to Oklahoma and in 1994 won a four-year term as governor. Three months after he took office, the Oklahoma City bomb went off. As for the lure of national politics, there are suggestions that he might emerge as a vice-presidential candidate on the 1996 Republican ticket. Frank, his twin brother, Daniel, and their older brother, Martin, were raised as strict Catholics in Tulsa. Frank went to parochial schools, then to Georgetown University and finally to the University of Oklahoma law school. He is married with three children.