VILLA PARK : 14-Year-Old Dies in Jet Ski Accident

A 14-year-old student athlete was killed Sunday when her jet ski collided with a power boat the Colorado River in Riverside County.

Angela Settle, a popular swimmer and varsity tennis player at Villa Park High School, was spending Father’s Day with her family near a river camp known as Rancho Not So Grande 15 miles north of Blythe.

Riverside County Sheriff’s Department officials said the accident apparently occurred after Angela turned a jet ski she was riding into the path of a powerboat driven by an Anaheim man, Frederick N. Oliver, 53. Angela was pronounced dead on arrival at Palo Verde Hospital. No charges have been filed, but the incident remains under investigation, officials said.

She made the varsity tennis team as a freshman, swam, played soccer and recently was reelected class secretary, school officials said.

“Angie lived in the center of a whirlwind. Her motto was ‘Live It Up,’ ” said her best friend, Cindi King, 15. “She lived for music. Every person that knows her has at least one tape that she made for them.”

Angela also loved to share inside jokes with her friends, Cindi said. For instance, “we called ourselves ‘Cingie,’ a combination of our names.”

Cindi added that she and her friends at Villa Park High School hope to start a memorial fund for Angela.

“She liked people and she liked them to like her,” said her grandmother, Marilyn Wieman. “She took a great interest in her friends. She was just a lovely teen-ager who anybody would have liked to have as their own daughter. . . . At least she set an example that would be hard for anyone else to match.”

Varsity tennis coach Billie Jean McCartney said Angela was “a pleasure to have around. She was a cutup. Whenever we were taking pictures, she would be the one who said, ‘Oh, look, there’s a camera.’ She certainly was not a reserved person.”

On a tennis team questionnaire that Angela filled out last year, she wrote that she hoped to attend college at UC San Diego or UC Santa Cruz and become a marine biologist or an actress.

She is survived by her parents, Marine Lt. Col. Robert H. and Jane Settle; a brother, Matthew, 16, and a sister, Katie, 8. A memorial service has not been scheduled.