The most universally loved mother in late night television, Dorothy Mengering, has died, a rep for the David Letterman family confirmed to CBS News. She was 95.
Better known to viewers as “Dave’s Mom,” Mengering was an expert pie-maker with a sincerity that charmed audiences on Letterman’s Late Show on CBS beginning in 1986. She lived her entire life in Indiana, making satellite appearances from her Midwestern kitchen for a Thanksgiving segment called Guess Mom’s Pies.
She also often made Mother’s Day visits to the show, and became a celebrity in her own right after working as a correspondent for three different Winter Olympics.
Once famous, she published a 1996 cookbook called Home Cookin’ With Dave’s Mom. Mengering was a “tuck-you-in-at-night mom. A kiss-and-make-it-better mom,” Pamela Davis wrote in a St. Petersburg Times profile. “A favorite-meal-on-your-birthday mom.”
Even President Bill Clinton admitted that he and Hillary Clinton stayed up late to watch her, The Washington Post reports.
On Tuesday, Stephen Colbert, the current host of The Late Show, took to Twitter to send his condolences, writing: “I’m so sorry to hear of Dorothy Mongering’s death, and so grateful that Dave shared her with us.”
Read more about Dorothy Mengering’s life here, and watch one of her famous segments below.
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