His father, Joseph, was a florist, and his mother, Dorothy, served as a church secretary. Letterman, who has one older and one younger sister, has described his upbringing as typical lower middle-class. He played Little League baseball, ran track in high school, held a paper route, and bagged groceries at a local supermarket in his teens. A rambunctious youth who made mediocre grades, Letterman wasnevertheless ambitious. From an early age he aspired to become a broadcaster, despite his parents' wishes that he pursue a more practical profession. He adored television—perhaps because his parents kept a tight control over their children's viewing—enjoyed
The Arthur Godfrey Show and idolized talk show host Johnny Carson.
After high school, Letterman attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, which is known for its outstanding communications program. While still in college, he found a summer job as a replacement announcer at a local television station and eventually became an announcer and weekend weatherman at the ABC-TV affiliate in Indianapolis. There, he began trying out some of his humor on the air, and realized that he wanted to become a comedy writer. After graduating from Ball State in 1969, the station where he had worked summers hired him full-time to announce the weather and host an occasional children's program or late-night movie.
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