Victoria Ann Fletcher passed away February 19, 2022 at her home in the Santa Ynez Valley California after a long battle with skin cancer. Vicki was born October 25, 1949 in San Bernardino, California to Paul and Patricia Ketelsen. She grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, living in San Marino and Pasadena. She graduated from San Marino High School and then attended Pasadena City College. During her school years, she enjoyed horseback riding at the Flintridge Riding Club. When she asked her father to buy her a horse, he handed her a tennis racket instead. While disappointed in not getting her very own horse, she started taking tennis lessons and quickly showed great promise. She played tennis in high school, college and on the open circuit where she became a nationally ranked player. She toured on the west coast tennis circuit. She later said her father did her a great favor by introducing her to the game. While excelling at tennis she never lost her love for horses. She traded giving tennis lessons to Susie Hutchinson’s (her friend from Flintridge) father for allowing her to ride some of Susie’s horses. Vicki was always a tomboy and a great athlete. Being of British heritage, her mother called Vicki “Her little English rose with thorns.” She was also an avid snow skier and spent many hours on the slopes at Mammoth, where her parents had a cabin, Vail, Aspen and Steamboat Springs. It was one of her ski trips with the Flintridge Hunt Club to Steamboat Springs where she met Hale Fletcher, a banker, skier and horseman himself. They dated, fell in love and were married in September of 1983 at a friend’s ranch in The Santa Ynez Valley. In 1984, they moved from Pasadena to Buellton, California, where they kept their horses and a menagerie of Vicki’s animals. She enjoyed riding her horse Ace and socializing as a member of the Santa Ynez Valley Hunt Club. She often said that riding to the hounds was both fun and exhilarating. Her love of the beach was evident as their son Christopher Keeland Fletcher was born a day after she had been body surfing at a local beach.
One day while playing tennis at the Alisal resort she was approached by the Santa Ynez High School Men’s tennis coach when he asked her if she would be interested in coaching the girls’ team. She accepted the job and continued to coach at both the high school and junior high level as well as give private lessons for many years. In her later years while still playing tennis she and Hale picked up the game of pickelball and were the first members of the Alisal Resort Pickelball Club.
Vicki was predeceased by her parents Paddy and Paul Ketelsen. She is survived by her husband Robert Hale their son Christopher Keeland, her brother Jeremy Ketelsen and his wife Deborah of Bayside, CA and many cousins. As a great animal lover, donations may be made in her name to the Santa Barbara City Zoo. A celebration of Vicki’s life will be held later
this year.
