GI Killed in Iraq Still a Newlywed ; Wife Says ‘He Could Cheer Anyone Up’

PLYMOUTH – Today, Amy Stanley takes solace in the fact that her husband was a person who always found a way to cheer people up.

“He was someone everyone wanted to be friends with,” she said yesterday about her husband, Army Spc. Matthew Stanley, who was killed by a roadside bomb Saturday in Iraq.

“He could cheer anyone up. He was smart and confident about what he wanted to do in life,” said Amy Stanley, a Plymouth native.

Matthew Stanley, 22, of Wolfeboro, N.H., and two fellow soldiers died in an explosion that happened while they rode in a Humvee in Baghdad.

Amy Stanley, 23, is the daughter of Robert and Lorraine Bennett and the sister of Luke Bennett, all of Plymouth. { PLYMOUTH _ Amy Stanley of Cedarville has three brothers, Luke, Samuel and Anthony Bennett, and a sister, Melissa Bennett. ]

The Stanleys were married last New Year’s Eve, and would have celebrated their first wedding anniversary in two weeks.

The couple, who met through friends, knew each other for three years before their wedding at the Swift Memorial United Methodist Church at Sagamore Beach.

A 2001 graduate of Plymouth South High School, Amy is living with her parents on Alewife Road in the Manomet section of town.

Matthew Stanley, who grew up in New Hampshire, would have turned 23 the day after Christmas.

His stepbrother, James Savage Jr., said he was serving his second tour in Iraq.

Stanley was initially shipped to Iraq after finishing basic training. In October, he was deployed there again.

“He was very proud of his family, proud of where he lived, and proud of what he did,” Savage said.

Stanley, a member of the Armored Cavalry out of Fort Hood, Texas, was normally assigned to a Bradley fighting vehicle, Savage said. But he was riding in a Humvee the day he was killed.

Born in Danvers, Stanley grew up in Lynn before moving to the Wolfeboro-Ossipee, N.H., area with his mother and stepfather.

He graduated in 2002 from Kingswood Regional High School in Wolfeboro and enlisted in the Army about 18 months later.

Amy Stanley said funeral services will be held in New Hampshire at a later date. Arrangements for the return of her husband’s body are still being worked out.

Stanley is also survived by his father, Richard Stanley of Lynn.

Flags in Wolfeboro will be flown at half-staff in Stanley’s honor.

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