Mrs. Landingham
Delores Landingham was a regular supporting character in the first two seasons of the NBC television series The West Wing.
Landingham (portrayed primarily by actress Kathryn Joosten, and Kirsten Nelson in a flashback episode) was President Josiah Bartlet's secretary. She was an older, matronly woman who could address the President in a very direct (almost abrupt), maternal way that would have been inappropriate and impermissible by other members of the White House staff. In flashbacks it was revealed that she had known the President since he was a teenager in his native New Hampshire where his formidable father served as headmaster of a private school. Mrs. Landingham was then the senior Bartlet's secretary. Mrs. Landingham later worked as Jed Bartlet's secretary during his tenure as Governor and President (and presumedly during his other offices as well). Mrs. Landingham was a widow by the time she worked in the White House and her two children, twin sons, had been killed in the Vietnam War. Her character was killed in a traffic accident after purchasing her first new car at the end of the second season (in the episode "18th and Potomac", which was the site of the accident).
Coincidences
In an unusually striking incidence of "life imitating art", the character's death prompted the issuance of memorials by several real-life newspapers and on the floor of the California State Assembly. (See Memorials to Delores Landingham).
Template:Characters on The West Wing (TV series)