Dorothy Mengering—known to millions of Late Night and Late Show fans as Dave Letterman’s mom—has died. Usually referred to simply as “Dave’s Mom,” Mengering was a staple of her son’s comedy antics, featuring in Top Ten lists, cooking segments, and, most notably, as the Late Show’s Winter Olympics correspondent.
An Indiana homemaker who worked in her husband’s flower shop and served as the secretary for her church, Mengering’s Midwestern wholesomeness stood in sharp contrast to her son’s comedy anarchist sensibilities. A surface reading of her appearances might even suggest a level of mean-spirited joking on Letterman’s part; a mockery of Dorothy’s polite but unpolished delivery, or a declaration of Letterman’s own comic self-indulgence. But that reading would miss the truth of Dorothy’s regular player status, which becomes obvious as you look through clips of her appearances: Letterman loved his mom, and thought she was funny as hell.