# RIP Dorothy Mengering (David Letterman's Mom) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2017, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340 "2017-04-12T20:26:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/1 "2017-04-12T20:26:58Z")
I didn’t see this posted yet so I thought I’d toss it out there. David Letterman’s mom passed away. ☹ She was 95 years old. One of my favorite bits on Letterman’s show was guessing the Thanksgiving pies. She seemed like a genuinely sweet woman. [Washington Post Article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/12/dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom-dies-at-95-she-was-the-perfect-foil-for-his-comedy/) [Rolling Stone](http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mother-dead-at-95-w476288) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/2 "2017-04-12T20:29:32Z")
She could make a hell of a pie. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/3 "2017-04-12T20:53:07Z")
Poor Dave. ☹ 95’s one helluva run, though. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/4 "2017-04-12T21:20:02Z")
What a doll! What a good sport! If you look in the dictionary under the word, “unflappable,” you’ll see her picture. Probably an Indiana thing. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/5 "2017-04-12T23:41:09Z")
According to _ **Jeopardy!** _\*, today is Dave’s 70th birthday. Can’t imagine how he’s feeling right now. RIP, Dorothy. ☹ \*And as noted in the link(s). ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/6 "2017-04-13T00:30:50Z")
I remember Dave sent her to the winter Olympics three times: Lillehammer, Nagano and Salt Lake City. She did a good job reporting and was very entertaining. I’m glad Dorothy had her 15 mins of Fame. RIP Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/7 "2017-04-13T00:36:16Z")
Dorothy’s biography. > **[Dorothy Mengering ‘was everyone’s mom’](https://www.indystar.com/story/entertainment/arts/2017/04/12/mengering-letterman-olympics-carmel-cbs-mother-presbyterian-hofert/100361486/)** > > Carmel resident delighted TV viewers with kitchen and Olympic reports > [@](#): > > Born Dorothy Marie Hofert in Linton on July 18, 1921, Mengering took business courses at Indiana University. In 1942, she married Joe Letterman, a florist who eventually owned stores on 34th Street and Keystone Avenue in Indianapolis. > > The couple’s three children, Jan, David and Gretchen, attended Broad Ripple High School. Joe Letterman died in 1973. > > Mengering worked as a secretary at Second Presbyterian Church, 7700 N. Meridian St., into the 1980s. She married Hans Mengering in 1983. He died in 2013. > > She donated more than $100,000 from sales of a 1996 cookbook, “Home Cookin’ with Dave’s Mom,” to a Kiwanis International campaign to wipe out iodine deficiency disorders in developing countries. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/8 "2017-04-13T14:56:16Z")
I remember before they started using Letterman’s actual Mom they often had another actress playing the role. Usually as part of some gag (“Mom coils electrical cable for the show when she’s in town”). RIP to the real Letterman Mom. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/9 "2017-04-13T15:11:42Z")
I think there may be millions of Letterman’s fans who feel a little like they’ve lost their own mom today. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/10 "2017-04-13T15:29:05Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I think there may be millions of Letterman’s fans who feel a little like they’ve lost their own mom today. > > ☹ Yes, this 🙁. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/11 "2017-04-13T15:43:01Z")
Letterman’s acting _nom de plume_ is, “Earl Hofert,” which is his mother’s brother’s name. Yes, that makes him an uncle. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/12 "2017-04-14T01:28:36Z")
It didn’t seem scripted but every time he called her and tried to use a different voice to fool her (this is before call display), she would go “Hi David”. Another thing she did was when all of Dave friends and co-workers would call him “Dave”, she would call him “David”. There is another clip where Dave calls the wrong number and gets a guy named Sid. (How he forgot his mother’s number was that she had recently gotten a new number). While talking to his mother, he asks if she knows Sid and she says “Yes” and you could see Dave Letterman just losing his composure and looking astonished ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-dorothy-mengering-david-lettermans-mom/784340/13 "2017-04-14T15:26:45Z")
Dorothy lived in our neighborhood and I can tell you she was just as friendly and sweet as she appeared. She was an avid walker although she didn’t go as far and used a walker and went with a care giver in the later years. My wife is also a walker and saw her just a couple of weeks ago and Dorothy right away smiled and waved to her.