DATE: Monday, August 18, 1997               TAG: 9708180045

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Correspondent Jane Harper researched and wrote this report. 

                                            LENGTH:   73 lines

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO. . . DANUTA SODERMAN, OF ``THE 700 CLUB''?

In 1983, Danuta Soderman left a local morning TV show she was co-hosting in San Diego and moved to Virginia Beach to co-host the Christian Broadcasting Network's ``The 700 Club.'' Despite her popularity with viewers, she left the show in 1988 and returned to broadcasting in California.

Danuta Soderman's life is a lot less public these days, but it's certainly no less active.

First of all, her last name is no longer Soderman. She divorced after moving back to California and later remarried. Her new name is Danuta Pfeiffer.

And she's not in California anymore. She moved to Eugene, Ore., to be near her family after her divorce. There, she met her new husband, Robin, a former teacher and guidance counselor who also owns a 78-acre vineyard in Eugene. These days, most of her time is spent helping out in the vineyard. She does everything from driving a tractor and making sandwiches for work crews to hauling grapes to the wineries.

She also spends a lot of time biking, preparing for a yearlong, 22,000-mile ride she and her husband plan for the year 2000. They intend to travel with about 250 other riders as part of the Odyssey 2000 bike tour, which will make its way through 52 countries on six continents.

She will turn 50 during the tour, and her husband 60 - but Pfeiffer already has proven she has the stamina and strength to bike long distances. Four years ago, she and a friend biked from British Columbia to Mexico, traveling 2,200 miles in 45 days. They also managed to raise $10,000 for their Canada-to-Mexico trek, which they used to buy computers for a high school in their area. Likewise, the Pfeiffers hope to raise money during Odyssey 2000 for a youth-mentoring program.

``Robin and I wanted to make it meaningful, so we're doing it as a benefit ride,'' she said in a telephone interview last week.

While her time on ``The 700 Club'' seems like a ``lifetime ago,'' Pfeiffer said she is still recognized wherever she goes.

Actually, she said she originally was hired as a foreign correspondent for the Christian-based show. She was told she'd be working out of Jerusalem and that one of her first assignments would be to interview the Pope, she said.

But when she arrived in Virginia Beach, she said, she received a memo that had been distributed to other employees at CBN asking everyone to welcome the new co-host of ``The 700 Club.'' That was fine with her, and she happily did the program until 1988.

That's when things started becoming more political, she remembers.

At the time there were scandals involving televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and Jimmy Swaggert, and there was the controversy over Oral Roberts' comment that he'd be called to heaven if his followers didn't donate enough money. Then Pat Robertson, her co-host, decided to run for president.

``The entire complexion of `The 700 Club' changed, and I felt it was becoming more and more political. The politics we were to espouse were Pat's politics and not mine, and I felt uncomfortable about that.''

Pfeiffer continued working in TV and radio after her return to the West Coast, but she hasn't been involved in broadcasting now for more than a year. However, she is talking with a distribution group from Medford, Ore., about hosting a nationally syndicated radio show that would be broadcast from the vineyard.

Pfeiffer says she is touched when her former viewers and listeners remember her, and she enjoys hearing from them. She invites them to contact her via computer e-mail: danuta(AT)aol.com. MEMO: Whatever Happened To. . . appears every Monday, and we welcome

your suggestions for people and subjects to update.

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Harper. ILLUSTRATION: Staff/File photo

Danuta Soderman, now Danuta Pfeiffer, left ``The 700 Club'' in 1988.

These days, she runs a vineyard in Eugene, Ore., with her husband,

Robin.

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