Delle Bohrman, screenwriter and wife of Los Angeles TV host, dies

Delle Bohrman, a screenwriter and widow of the longtime Los Angeles TV and radio host Stan Bohrman, has died at 89.

Bohrman, a resident of Westlake Terrace, died April 15 of advanced kidney failure, according to her son David, a veteran TV news producer for CNN, NBC and CBS.

Delle Bohrman served on the women’s committee of the Writers Guild of America. Working mostly under the name Del Coleman, she earned a story credit on the 1986 TV movie “Of Pure Blood” that starred Lee Remick, and wrote for the animated series “The Flintstones.”

She was the wife of Stan Bohrman, a provocative TV talk show host at Los Angeles TV station KHJ (now KCAL). Bohrman was the lead host of “Tempo,” a live daily interview program that presented controversial topics to a daytime audience from 1967-73. He later worked as a TV journalist for KABC in Los Angeles and KPIX in San Francisco and radio stations KNX and KFWB.

During his years on “Tempo,” where Bohrman flashed a peace sign at the end of each show, he and Delle were liberal political activists. They both marched with labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.

The couple were also active participants in the Laurel Canyon counterculture scene of the 1960s and early ‘70s. David Bohrman recalls that entertainers and rock stars were frequent guests at parties in their home, where folk singer Arlo Guthrie and songwriter Hoyt Axton were regulars.

Born Ardelle Coleman in Los Angeles on Oct. 23, 1932, she graduated from Dorsey High School and attended UCLA for two years before leaving to pursue a career as a lounge singer. She met Stan Bohrman when he was a radio show host and part-time musician and they married in 1953.

They resided mostly in Los Angeles, but also lived in Boston, San Francisco and San Diego when Stan Bohrman had radio or TV jobs in those cities.

Along with her son David, Delle Bohrman is survived by a daughter, Cathy. Her daughter Caren, a literary agent, died in 2012. Stan Bohrman died in 1994.