David Letterman's Mom, Who Became Unlikely Star, Dies At 95

NEW YORK — David Letterman’s mother Dorothy Mengering has died. She was 95.

Letterman’s publicist Tom Keaney confirmed Mengering’s death Tuesday for The Associated Press.

Mengering became an unlikely celebrity in her 70s, baking mystery pies and covering the Olympics for her son’s Late Show on CBS.

Letterman had been on the air for years, and had made ironic celebrities out of dozens of nobodies, before he thought to bring on his mom.

But the moment he did, she became a hit, with a cheerful “Hi, David!” in her Midwestern accent starting every appearance.

She baked and appeared via satellite in her Indiana kitchen for a segment called “Guess Mom’s Pies.”

And she was a correspondent for the show at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, a role she reprised for the next two winter games.

The Associated Press