Family on the mind of Mencia

Neal Weichel at Re/Max of Valencia, has the listing.

Stretch of green for a blues man

Just in time for the Grammy Awards, guitarist-songwriter Robert Cray and his wife, playwright and filmmaker Susan Turner-Cray, have sold their Los Feliz house and bought a 5-acre Santa Ynez Valley ranch.

The house sold for nearly $3.5 million; the ranch was purchased for about $2 million.

The ranch, 35 miles north of Santa Barbara, has a barn with an adjoining guesthouse, numerous horse corrals, gardens and lush landscaping. The main house has three bedrooms and three bathrooms in 4,800 square feet. There is a second story with an office and a playroom.

Cray, a blues artist with a mainstream following, plans to continue touring the world performing works from his albums "Live From Across the Pond" and "Twenty."

Cray, 54, and his Robert Cray Band collected five Grammy Awards in the 1980s and 1990s.

Turner-Cray was an Edinburgh Festival winner for her play "Manchester Girl," which she wrote and performed. She also wrote and directed "Through Riley's Eyes," a film about ALS.

The couple was represented in their sale and purchase by Arleen Ruby-Leviton and Lawrence Leviton of Prudential California Real Estate, Beverly Hills. Bill Grove, of Coldwell Banker Realty Los Olivos, represented the seller of the ranch.

Put couch here and lie down

Irene Kassorla, the psychologist and author once described by Merv Griffin as the "shrink to the stars," owned this Bel-Air home from 1966 to 1975 before she moved on, and Dr. William Bondareff moved in.

Bondareff and wife Rita then lived there for 20 years, while he was conducting research on Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and dementia as professor of psychiatry at USC's Keck School of Medicine.

The Bondareffs are now moving to Carmel, so the Neutra-inspired, indoor-outdoor house is on the market. It has three bedrooms and 2 3/4 bathrooms in 2,400 square feet, plus a pool that features a wall of stone with trickling water. The asking price is slightly less than $2.2 million.

Dave Osman of Rodeo Realty, Beverly Hills, has the listing.

ruth.ryon@latimes.com