SPEEDY RECOVERY ASKED FOR ILL SANTA.

Byline: Alicia Doyle Daily News Staff Writer

Scribbled in pencil, the letter to Santa Claus was simple. "Did you fall off your sleigh and break your arm?" the worried youngster wrote.

Some children wondered if Santa's reindeer were to blame.

"Did your reindeer get his head stuck in a tree?" asked another.

For Ray Whitaker, a Santa look-a-like who often provokes stares and double takes whenever he's in public, the letters keep pouring in.

The plump man with the naturally white beard has received hundreds of get-well cards from concerned children all over Ventura County since he discovered he had a tumor in his pancreas just days after Christmas.

Wednesday, the 69-year-old retired Lockheed worker will undergo major surgery at UCLA.

"The only thing I can do now is get better," said Ray Whitaker, sitting on his bed in a pool of get-well cards from Fillmore, Ventura, Simi Valley and Oxnard.

Most of the hand-made letters were scribbled in crayons, markers and colored pencils - original tidbits of love from children wishing their Santa would get better soon.

Others were mailed from older believers.

The assistant manager at Taco Bell wished Whitaker the best. The principal from Santa Susana Elementary School said "Santa, get well soon." And the manager at McDonald's was optimistic that Santa Claus would be better by next Christmas.

"These are priceless," Ray Whitaker said. "They cheered me up at a time when I really needed it."

Cherie Whitaker, Ray's daughter, said the family expects her father's surgery to cost up to $250,000. Her parents' medical insurance will pay 80 percent of the bill.

"We may have to sell our house," said June Whitaker, Ray's wife. "But we'll do what we have to do."

Since 1990, Ray and June Whitaker have dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Claus for dozens of holiday charity events.

Donning traditional holiday garb and sporting their own jolly demeanors, the Simi Valley residents have been the main attraction at holiday events from Los Angeles to Yosemite National Park. They have made regular appearances at places including battered women's shelters, schools, Universal Studios and the Long Beach parade.

Whitaker stumbled upon the role in 1990, when his daughter was working at the annual charity Christmas tree sale for radio station KLOS-FM (95.5) at the Hollywood Bowl.

The Santa Claus that KLOS originally had hired showed up drunk and started asking the kids for tips to sit on his lap.

Cherie Whitaker, who had bought her father a Santa suit for the first time that same year, called her father in desperation.

She told him the task would be "simple."

"I told him all he would have to do is let kids sit on his lap," Cherie Whitaker said.

Decked out for the first time in his red Santa suit and hat, Ray Whitaker walked through the entrance of the Hollywood Bowl ringing a gold bell.

The center of attention, he spent six hours listening to holiday wishes. More than 2,000 children sat on his lap.

"I didn't know how I'd feel at first," Ray Whitaker said. "But once I got the kids on my lap, I was a natural."

Ray Whitaker typically works for free. But when he is paid, he spends the cash on candy canes for the children.

Ray Whitaker's children, Cherie and Ron, have helped their him stash more than 20,000 candy canes away for their father to hand out next Christmas.

Whenever their father fears the worst, they remind him of how many children are counting on him to fulfill their holiday wishes.

"I tell him, if he thinks he's gonna give up early, he's wrong," Ron Whitaker said. "When he worries, we make him read all those letters. He gets tears in his eyes and he smiles. He says he can't give up on the kids."

Ray Whitaker admits he is worried about the procedure Wednesday. But he believes the healthy lifestyle he has followed for years will help him through a speedy recovery.

Three times a week, he has taken water-aerobics classes at Rancho Simi Park. He and his wife often take long walks through a park near their home. Neither one of them drinks or smokes.

"The doctor said it would take me a year to recover," Ray Whitaker said. "That's just in time for Christmas."

"Get Well" greetings for Ray Whitaker can be mailed to: Santa Claus, P.O. Box 3561, Simi Valley, Calif., 93093.

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PHOTO

Photo (color) Ray Whitaker, with his wife, June, looks over some of the many get-well cards sent to the part-time Santa. Whitaker is to have surgery performed on a tumor found in his pancreas. Andy Holzman/Special to the Daily News