Valerie and Roberta Soprano; Accident Victims

Memorial services will be held Friday for a Santa Paula honor student, Valerie Soprano, 18, and her mother, Roberta Soprano, 48, who were killed in a traffic accident near Palmdale Sunday.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday at Our Lady of Assumption Church in Ventura, with burial following in Santa Paula Cemetery. There will be a reception in St. Sebastian’s parish hall in Santa Paula immediately after the services.

Friends and family may call at the Pierce Brothers Stetler Mortuary in Santa Paula from 6 to 9 p.m., Thursday.

Valerie and Roberta Soprano were passengers in a Thunderbird being driven by Valerie’s brother, Jonathon, when the vehicle went out of control and was broadsided by an oncoming car. The mother and daughter were killed instantly, investigators said.

Jonathon Soprano, 17, of Santa Paula suffered major injuries. He was comatose and in critical condition late Tuesday at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, according to a nursing supervisor.

The Sopranos were headed to a family vacation in Laughlin, Nev. Roberta Soprano’s husband, Len, and six of their children were in a van traveling ahead of the Thunderbird when the accident occurred.

Valerie Soprano graduated this month from St. Bonaventure High School, where she was senior class president. She was elected homecoming queen last year and excelled both in athletics and academics, said Brother Paul Horkan, St. Bonaventure’s principal. She was also active in the community and taught Sunday school at St. Sebastian Church in Santa Paula.

Horkan described Roberta Soprano as a mother devoted to her nine children and to church activities in Ventura and in Santa Paula.

“The whole family is anxious to be involved and help out,” Horkan said. “It’s tragic. It’s really sad.”

Besides her husband, Len, and son, Jonathon, Roberta Soprano is survived by seven other children and numerous other relatives who live in Ventura County.