An outpouring of love and memories notes the passing of Dorothy Mengering, but don’t blame yourself for feeling clueless. Her other name: “Dave’s Mom” — as in David Letterman.

Dorothy Mengering, "Dave's Mom" during Letterman show segment. Photo via YouTube.com
Dorothy Mengering, “Dave’s Mom” during Letterman show segment. Photo via YouTube.com
“From her Indiana kitchen, she became arguably the most beloved mother of late-night television — the expert pie-maker with the trademark apron, warm smile and gentle demeanor that charmed Americans each time she came on the screen with her signature greeting, Hi, David!’” said The Washington Post obituary.

Mengering died Tuesday at her home in Carmel, Indiana, at age 95 — a day before Letterman’s 70th birthday.

“Through her occasional appearances on Letterman’s shows, Mengering became a celebrity in her own right,” the Post noted. “It began with a few phone calls, usually around Thanksgiving, when Mengering would talk to her son — and his viewers — via satellite from her kitchen. Letterman would ask his mother about the most mundane of details — the weather in Indiana, the cat or what she had prepared for dinner.”

Her local paper, the Indianapolis Star, said Dorothy Marie Hofert, born July 18, 1921, in Linton, Indiana, took business courses at Indiana University.

“She married Joe Letterman, a florist who eventually owned stores on 34th Street and Keystone Avenue in Indianapolis, in 1942,” the paper said. “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 into the 1980s. She married Hans Mengering in 1983. He died in 2013, the paper said.

A sampling of Twitter tributes.

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