BYJOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Dave's mom
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The mother of all celebrity mothers could become a regular Tristate visitor.
David Letterman's mom, Dorothy, in town to sign her cookbook, says this won't be her last trip to the Queen City.
"My granddaughter just moved back to Cincinnati so we'll be coming down from now on," says Dave's mom, 77, who asks that media protect her privacy by not using her full name.
Granddaughter Bryn Mooth and her husband, Rob, lived in St. Louis when Home Cookin' with Dave's Mom was released in 1996.
Dorothy's 175-page anecdotal cookbook never mentions her last name. It's full of family photos, including her "hero" Hans, whom she married in 1983. (Dave's dad died in 1973.)
Hans' involvement with the Kiwanis Club brings her to the Cheviot-Westwood chapter meeting tonight at Westwood Presbyterian Church, and to autograph books 2-4 p.m. Saturday at the Westwood Wal-Mart, 2322 Ferguson Road.
Her $9 profit from the book goes to the Kiwanis International effort to battle iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) in Third World nations.
"I remember as a little girl seeing people with awful goiters on their necks from iodine deficiency problems," says Dorothy, who was born in Linton, Ind., and lives in suburban Indianapolis. "Once salt was iodized here about 70 years ago, that eliminated the problem in this country. It's the leading preventable cause of mental retardation in children."
If Dave's mom looks tired, it's from her long day Thursday in New York. She taped her son's fifth anniversary special to air Nov. 23 (9:30-11 p.m., Channels 12, 7), with highlights of her Winter Olympics reports from Japan and Norway.
Some 2 1/2 years after publication, Dave's mom is surprised by the continuing demand for her collection of recipes for "Mother's Oven-Fried Chicken," "Baby Food Muffins" and "David's Fried Baloney Sandwich," her son's favorite childhood lunch.
Often they shared the noon meal in the 1950s watching Ruth Lyons' Cincinnati 50-50 Club on Indianapolis TV. (One of her favorite recordings is last year's WVXU-FM compact disc about Ms. Lyons, Channel 5's daily live variety show from 1949 to 1967.)
"I play it over and over and over," she says. "It brings back such great memories of David coming home from school for lunch, and watching Ruth Lyons with him."
If you ever see her in town, call her Dave's mom or Dorothy. Don't call her famous.
"I'm not a celebrity. I'm a celebrity's mother," she says. "I think I'm thought of as everybody's mother or grandma. What they're really saying is that they love their moms. That's what I represent."
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write him at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, 45202.
