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Since Tolkien's characters do not remarry (are there any at all?), missing mom is a common motif, but monster step-mom is missing.
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Sharon, I'm sure that you know this and just forgot, but I figured that I'd mention in this thread (since no one else did) that Tolkien uses a re-marriage once, in the case of Finwë, who married Indis after his first wife Míriel died. I'm not sure how very important this was to the story of Fëanor, Fingolfin and Finarfin, unless perhaps it contributed to the way the half-brothers did not get along very well.
I write myself, and admit to using the dead mother technique more than once. However, most of the time when I've used it, it was simply to free up my characters so they could go on their adventures unhindered. The reasons for this have been discussed amply above, of course.
I did use the father-dies-and-mother-remarries plot once, though. As a personal aside, it was written in first person, and the basic gist of the opening paragraph was "It all began when my father died." I gave this to my father to read and he said, "But your father isn't dead." [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]
I think the dead mother (or father) is somewhat integral to stories, really. Since a lot of the time children outlive their parents, it's just natural. It may become a shortcut to getting your character out the door, or an emotional ploy (ick) but in the hands of a skilled writer, it will always have its place in writing, and deservedly so.
Tolkien himself said that "All the really good stories have been about one thing—death". That sounds rather garish on the surface, but when you think about it, stories with no death in them tend to lose our interest. I mean, who would want to read about the Paths of the Dead from Legolas's perspective? *Yawn* So would we really care about a bunch of characters who have not been touched by death in some way in their lives? And a mother is such an obvious candidate for the job, because most of us would rather have our mothers.