David Letterman’s mother dies at 95

‘Centerfold’ musician dead

NEW YORK, April 12, (AP): David Letterman’s mother Dorothy Mengering, a Midwestern homemaker who became an unlikely celebrity in her 70s as she baked mystery pies and covered the Olympics for her son’s late-night show, has died. She was 95.

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

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 Indiana accent starting every appearance. The two had great on-air chemistry, her homespun sincerity proving the perfect foil for her son’s urban acerbity.

Her first appearances came via satellite from her Carmel, Indiana, kitchen for a segment called “Guess Mom’s Pies,” which became a Thanksgiving tradition. Letterman would make a huge production of the bit before finally declaring, usually correctly, “chocolate chiffon!” or “rhubarb!” When he was wrong, she would take on a comforting tone like he was a boy who had lost a little-league game.

She soon started making annual Mother’s Day appearances too.

She really became a star when the show took her out of the kitchen.

Mengering was a correspondent for the Letterman’s Late Show on CBS at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer Norway, a role she reprised for the next two winter games, wearing bulky snow gear that made her tiny self almost invisible, and oozing pure sincerity even in absurd bits Letterman’s writers had her perform.

Mengering

Idea

“After Lillehammer, I couldn’t believe how it all took off,” Mengering told The New York Times in 1996. “I think it’s about the idea of mom and of a family.”

Mengering lived all her life in Indiana. She married Letterman’s father, a florist named Harry Letterman, in 1942. He died in 1973, and she married structural engineer Hans P. Mengering, who died in 2013.

Once famous, she put out a cookbook, 1996’s “Home Cookin’ With Dave’s Mom,” that included recipes such as “Dave’s Fried Baloney Sandwich” and the secrets behind many of the pies she had baked for the show.

Musician J. Geils, founder of The J. Geils Band known for such peppy early 80s pop hits as “Love Stinks,” “Freeze Frame” and “Centerfold,” has died in his Massachusetts home at 71.

Groton police said officers responded to Geils’ home around 4 p.m. Tuesday for a well-being check and found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“A preliminary investigation indicates that Geils died of natural causes,” police said in a statement.

The J. Geils Band was founded in 1967 in Worcester, Massachusetts, while Geils, whose full name was John Warren Geils Jr, was studying mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Geils served as the band’s guitarist and vocalist. Bandmates included Danny Klein, Richard “Magic Dick” Salwitz, Stephen Jo Bladd, Peter Wolf and Seth Justman.

The band, whose music blended blues rock, R&B, soul and pop, released 11 studio albums and built a large following due to their energetic live shows as well as their unusual use of the harmonica as a lead instrument. The band broke up in 1985, but reunited off and on over the years.

The group had several Top 40 singles in the early 1970s, including a cover song “Lookin’ for a Love” by the family group The Valentinos and “Give It to Me.”

Their biggest hits included “Must of Got Lost,” which reached No. 12 on Billboard’s Top 100 in 1975 and “Love Stinks,” a humorous rant against unrequited love, the title song of their 1980 album. Their song “Centerfold,” from the album “Freeze Frame” was released in 1981 and eventually charted at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in February 1982. It stayed there for six weeks and was featured on MTV.

The band was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the fourth time last fall but once again was not selected as part of the 2017 class.

Process

“This is our fourth nomination, and going through that process, with its inherent disappointment, you’re not sure you want to take that ride again,” lead vocalist Peter Wolf told Billboard at the time. “It’s great to be recognized, but it’s a drag to be disappointed. I hope that we make it in. That would be great.”

When news of Geils’ death broke, fans turned to social media to offer condolences and to reminisce about the band’s songs and concerts.

Wolf wrote a short message on Facebook about his former bandmate, “Thinking of all the times we kicked it high and rocked down the house! R.I.P Jay Geils.”

WCVB-TV in Boston reported Geils had called Groton his home for 35 years.

Peter Hansen, best known for his long run as lawyer and volunteer addiction counselor Lee Baldwin on the ABC soap opera “General Hospital,” has died. He was 95.

Hansen died Sunday in Santa Clarita, Calif., according to his family.

His first run on “General Hospital” spanned 19651976, followed by a second between 1977 and 1986. He re-joined the show briefly in 1990, and then again from 1992-2004. His work won him a Daytime Emmy for supporting actor in 1979. In addition to the soap opera mainstay, Hansen also appeared in the spinoff “Port Charles.”

Outside television, Hansen starred in the 1951 Academy Award-winning sci-fi film “When Worlds Collide” with Barbara Rush and John Hoyt. The year before he was featured in “Branded” with Alan Ladd as the kidnapped son of a rich rancher. In 1952 he played a US cavalry lieutenant in “The Savage” with Charlton Heston.

He also had guest roles in several television shows including “The Goldbergs,” “Sea Hunt,” “Cheers,” “Science Fiction Theatre,” “Perry Mason,” “The Lone Ranger,” “The Golden Girls,” and “Magnum P.I.” He also had recurring roles on “Gomer Pyle: USMC,” “The Adventures of Jim Bowie,” and “How the West Was Won.”