By BARRY BLITZER Palisadian-Post columnist

We’ll miss you, Ray Charles. Ask B. B. King, Willie Nelson, The Rev. Jesse Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Wynton Marsalis and the thousands of other devoted fans, black and white, who paid homage to you last Friday at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown L.A. ”When it came to jazz, R&B, country and pop, you were the main man for 73 awesome years. Talk about a string of hits, like ‘Georgia On My Mind,’ ‘Hit The Road, Jack,’ ‘What’d I Say?’ And who but Ray could turn the traditional ‘America The Beautiful’ into an unforgettable, soul-stirring blend of gospel and blues? ”Born in Georgia during the Depression, then raised in the black ghettos of Florida, he described his childhood poverty thusly: ‘Compared to other blacks, we were at the bottom of the barrel looking up at everyone else. Nothin’ below us except the ground.’ ”Afflicted with glaucoma since the age of 5, totally blind by 7, Ray found his luck finally changing for the better when he was sent to a state school for deaf and blind and where he first took up the piano, eventually overcoming his loss of sight by learning to read and compose music using Braille notes. ”Orphaned at 15, he hit the road playing and singing in bands that would gladly appear in tobacco barns or juke joints for the price of a meal. His nomadic life finally improved when he moved to Seattle and hooked up with the then teenaged Quincy Jones, a budding musical prodigy who became Ray’s long-time collaborator and friend. ”As Brother Ray would later admit about himself, he was a tough leader, a hard-to- please perfectionist who toured the world over, some 50 weeks per year. (He apparently took time off to marry five times and father 12 children.) Ray loved winning, whether it be by the number of hit recordings on the charts or by beating the pants off his perplexed opponents at both chess and cards. B. B. King claims that he often cheated at the latter by stacking the Braille deck. Trouble was it was hard to catch him in the dark. ”My daughter Amy had just turned 24 when my wife Elsie and I surprised her by taking her to see Ray Charles in person. It was a balmy afternoon concert at a scruffy park in Pasadena. His back-up band consisted of several well-known studio musicians, one of whom hit a clinker on the opening number, ‘The Right Time,’ which caused Ray’s trademark smile to fade to a visible grimace. He subsequently hit the right note on the piano, then resumed smiling and bobbing his head from side to side in time to the vocal’a born showman if there ever was one. ”All too soon the concert was over. Ray, still smiling and bobbing to the thunderous applause and shouts for an encore, looked bushed as he was escorted off stage by an aide, while a P.A. announcer boomed: ‘Let’s hear it for the one, the only, the legendary Ray Charles!’ That says it all. ”Bye, Bye, Ray.

Gregg Orenstein, son of Susan Orenstein and the late Dr. Martin Orenstein of Pacific Palisades, and Baoshi Liu, daughter of Shushan and Shuqin Liu of Harbin, China, exchanged vows in China on February 17. The couple met over a year ago on the Internet. Baoshi, an elementary school English teacher in Harbin, was looking for someone to help her with her English. Gregg, a kung fu enthusiast, was looking for someone to help him with his Chinese. After countless hours communicating over the Internet, and two trips to China for Gregg, the couple was married in Harbin in February. Gregg has returned to the U.S., and as soon as she obtains her visa, Baoshi will join him in the Palisades, where they plan to make their home.

Michael Mininsky and Palisadian native Allison Bruns are happy to announce their engagement. The couple became engaged in front of the famous Plaza Hotel across from Central Park in New York City on April 24. Mike and Allison met almost five years ago through mutual friends in Santa Monica. ”Bruns, daughter of Bill and Pam Bruns of Pacific Palisades, grew up in the Palisades, where she attended Palisades Elementary, Paul Revere Middle School and Palisades High. She received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Oregon and her master’s degree in clinical social work from San Diego State University. She currently works as a counselor at South Bay Child Guidance Clinic in Torrance. ”Mininsky, son of Stewart and Colleen Mininsky of Long Beach, New York, grew up on Long Island. He graduated from Tulane University and moved to Santa Monica in 1997. He currently works for Maniac Filmworks and Music. ”The couple, who reside in Santa Monica, plan to marry in April 2005 at the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey.

Josephine White Lightner Todd will soon once again become Charlotte Duncan’s big sister when the Todd family moves back to a town of 18,000 in Tennessee and into the bosom of her family. ”But for Jo Todd, the move is emotional as she leaves a town that she has grown to love. ‘I will miss good friends,’ says Todd, who cried with joy when John reversed his plans to leave the Palisades 10 years ago and transfer to another parish in Delaware. ”When she moved to Southern California in 1983 as a single mom, she had never been west of the Mississippi. After she left home for college, first at Agnes Scott in Decatur and then Vanderbilt, she got a job that took her to Atlanta and eventually to Los Angeles. ‘I didn’t know what the trees were and when people said ‘That’s an oak,’ [not accustomed to the scrubby small-leafed coastal version] I said, ‘That’s not an oak!” ”Todd still retains the soft tones, but lively vocabulary of her native Tennessee and she’s familiar with Presbyterian clergymen; her uncle and her great grandfather were both ministers. ‘Being married to a clergyman, I understand the hours and calls in the night, it’s part of the job. But John is a regular guy. If he had held himself in some high and mighty position, we wouldn’t have been married.’ ”Until last year, Jo worked, most recently as an analyst in the financial reporting department at Rand. She also served as treasurer for Paul Revere’s booster organization, PRIDE, where she oversaw a $200,000 budget. ‘It turned out to be a lot bigger than I realized.’ The Todd’s 13-year-old son Michael attended Marquez Elementary and Paul Revere. ”’I knew that some churches expected the pastor’s wife to doooo something,’ says Jo, who also is the mother to 29-year-old Katy. ‘This church has been fantastic in respecting me as a person. I don’t feel as if I’ve been treated as pastor’s wife. This year at the annual mother-daughter tea, they honored me. That was really sweet. I picked up the good stuff of being the pastor’s wife.’ ”Despite working outside the home, Jo has been very much a part of the church community. She has been in and out of the choir, depending on her work and John’s work schedule. ‘One of us has to be home,’ she says. ”She also joins John greeting parishioners after the Sunday service. ‘It helps keep it a family time, a social time instead of a time for counseling.’ Jo is gregarious, funny with an agreeable easygoing nature. She says the hardest adjustment she had to make was not having say in John’s work. ‘I can’t make suggestions. Once, I remember suggesting Hymn 500, ‘God Is Working His Purpose Out.’ It talks about the people throwing their nets in the Sea of Galilee, and they all die. Nobody liked that song, so that was the end of my suggestions.’

Presbyterian pastor John Todd, who has labored in the Palisades vineyard for 18 years, guiding, consoling and overseeing a new sanctuary, is bringing his 39-year career to an end July 1. He will delivers his farewell sermon this Sunday at 10 a.m. ”At 65, Todd thinks it’s an appropriate time to conclude his active ministry and move on. He, his wife Jo and son Michael intend to build a home on seven acres of hardwood forest in Tullahoma, Tennessee (halfway between Chattanooga and Nashville)’where Jo grew up and where much of her family still lives. ”’It’s been a great run and, like every person here, I love this community and I love this church,’ says Todd sitting in the office that he has suitably tailored to his taste with more books than objects on the shelves, sunshine streaming in, and an open door. ”When Todd came from a church with 1,500 members in Orange County to the Palisades church in 1985, the membership was aging and dwindling, a common phenomenon among mainline churches. ‘This parish was hurting,’ Todd says. ‘It was a tough place, the church had lost a lot of membership.’ ”Todd himself was ready for a change. He was recovering from a divorce and had met Jo, who was working in Orange County, in the church choir. Jo accompanied John to the interview with the Palisades elders and, according to John, made quite an impression. ”’We had been dating for awhile and planned to get married, but at one point we both kind of lost our confidence, since we had both been married,’ Todd recalls. ‘I called Bob Lowe [on the search committee] and asked him what would happen if I didn’t marry her: would the job offer go away? Bob hesitated for a while, then finally said ‘No.’ I guess he wanted Jo as much as he wanted me.’ The couple married one month after Todd took the job.” Todd says he knew from the start that the Palisades church was where he was supposed to be. ‘There is a different kind of intensity with my relationship with this church, and I think it’s because they allowed me to be exactly the way I wanted to be.’ ”His personal manner is notable, an updated biblical patriarch of sorts: commanding in stature, when he’s dressed in the black cape, green silver shawl and white starched collar, his intense brown eyes become all the more pronounced framed by the sweep of wavy hair and evangelist’s beard. ”’First of all, they gave me total freedom in the pulpit,’ which underscores the importance Todd places on preaching. Preparation for the Sunday sermon begins Monday morning, says Todd, who more than 20 years ago began the practice of reciting the Bible passage by heart. Throughout the week, he masters the text and refines and revises his sermon to be delivered for each of the two Sunday services. He choreographs his sermon, striding the chancel from side to side in his Falconhead cowboy boots, using his voice, his hands and his eyes to make the scripture relevant to this congregation. ”’Second, there were no expectations placed on my family, which might have been a problem as we live right next door to the church.’ (The Todds are the first family to occupy the manse on El Medio, which was built for them 20 years ago.) ‘They didn’t expect my wife to play the piano. And my son Michael, who’s 13, is no preacher’s kid. He feels totally at home here, he loves the Palisades. ”’Third,’ says Todd, ‘this community has allowed freedom for the church to be open. There are two kinds of congregations: exclusive, where everybody believes the same thing and they are all going in the same direction, and inclusive, which allows for a wide theological interpretation. That’s our church. As long as everybody believes in the core commitment, I don’t care how he or she comes at it. Some people come for fellowship, others struggle with the fundamental stuff like did Christ rise from the grave? But here is a free arena where you can wrestle with this.’ ”Calling himself one of the few Calvinists left, Todd believes that instead of placing the emphasis on the drive towards God, God is reaching for us. The challenge for Todd and for any church leader is to continue to address a community that isn’t listening’the Westside of Los Angeles, which tends to be very secular and not deeply religious. ”When the Web site ‘Mystery Worshiper,’ which publishes surreptitious critiques of churches, called Todd’s style a combination of Scottish traditional and Hollywood glitz, he couldn’t agree more. ‘Hollywood glitz is a complement. That’s what it should be, partly because of where we are and also the fact that so many of our people are involved in every part of the entertainment business.’ ”While Todd’s manner is dramatic, the content of his sermons is neither sensational nor political; he prefers to be inclusive on questions such as abortion and homosexuality. ‘My philosophy on that is ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,” he says. ‘I consider these private matters. People have every right to advocate one side and the other. My concern is the spiritual arena, that people can have strong opinions but that they don’t throw rocks at each other.’ ”Todd admits that he does rely on humor to get from point A to point B, but often the joke is on him. Baptisms, he suggests, are sure to be entertaining. ‘Everything that could happen in a baptism has,’ says Todd, who enjoys baptizing babies during the service. ‘The congregation likes to see me in turmoil.’ ”When Todd took over as pastor, a survey conducted in 1985 predicted an aging demographic for the Palisades, and youth work was discouraged. And while the church disregarded the prediction and built up what has turned out to be a highly successful youth program under the direction of Rev. Eric Schaefer, Todd tackled the dwindling population in another way. ”He built a program based on the very Presbyterian idea of stewardship, that the church belongs to the members, who make a commitment to that body. ”’I preached commitment to God and took the scriptural approach to talk about that commitment,’ Todd says. ‘These are bright, wonderful people in the Palisades and once they believe, it’s like a revival in the old days.’ ”Todd also preached tithing, the idea of making an annual financial commitment to support the church. ‘I preached six sermons that had to do with money. We now have well over 50 percent moving towards tithing, and we’ve been in the black for 10 years. I’m very proud of that.’ Membership today stands at 600 with 1,000 affiliated. ”Ten years ago, Todd wasn’t sure that the congregation wanted to grow and commit to building a new church, so he decided to transfer to a church in Delaware. ‘I felt that I had wrapped up what I could do, but Bob Lowe was insistent. We went down to the Bel-Air Bay Club for lunch and Bob assured me that the congregation would build a new church. I felt it was too late, I had already committed to the church in Delaware. Bob said, ‘In this country there is no indentured servitude.’ I called the Presbyterian offices and talked to Jo about staying. She started to cry. She was so happy.’ ”Todd stayed for another 10 years and oversaw the construction of the new sanctuary, completed in May 1999, which he mentions as one of the highlights of his career. ” ”Todd won’t speculate on the future of Palisades Presbyterian, insisting that the new pastor must determine the next step. He will not continue ministerial duties in his new home, but rather looks forward to spending more time with his son, who will be entering 8th grade. Todd expects visits from has two daughters from his first marriage and a 12-year-old granddaughter. He will also continue to write. ‘I have a couple of books I want to do, and I might teach. The University of the South is 30 minutes away, and Vanderbilt is also a possibility. ”’The challenges for the next era will be to continue to address a community that isn’t listening. The majority of church members have no church background or very little. If they can trust us, they’ll listen.’