Put the front brake back as your first task. Runniing only one brake, and only the rear, least effective one at that, would unnerve me. Get yourself some good brake pads like Kool Stop Salmon as yours are probably old and hard by now.

Sheldon Brown's site http://sheldonbrown.com/ and Park Tool http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help should have all of the information you will need.

Certainly the good folks on this forum will help if you get stuck.