Nicole Newton first became aware of Matthew Conley when they were in the fourth grade in Greenhill, a small community a couple of miles south of the Tennessee state line. Their classes were across the hall from each other.

“Matthew was the class clown," Nicole said. “I thought he was hysterical. When we got to the sixth grade, we had one of those girlfriend-boyfriend relationships where you really don't talk to each other. You just say he's my boyfriend or girlfriend."

Matthew had already told his father, Tommy Conley, that he thought Nicole was the prettiest girl in the school and that, someday, she would be his girlfriend.

They started dating in the eighth grade before either could drive. Their parents would drop them off and pick them up when they went anywhere. Most of the time, they were just at each other's houses.

“And legally, that's right. It just kind of shocked us that he was doing it. But after we talked to him and everything, the deal with Sept. 11 had a lot to do with it. It was something he felt like he wanted to do -- whatever he could do, whether it was a lot or a little."

Tommy Conley said he and his wife, Debbie, later found out that their son also was concerned that they wouldn't be able to afford to send both him and his sister, Allison, three years younger, to college at the same time. And his oldest sister, Emily, was already in college in Chattanooga, Tenn.

“And he wanted Allison to go to college, so he joined the Marines so she could go. He never told us that," Tommy Conley said. “That's the kind of person he was."

“At first, his letters were 'I miss you so much. I can't wait to see you again.' Then they were 'I can't wait to get married and spend the rest of our lives together.' It really set in then," Nicole said. “When he came home from boot camp, we got engaged in the school parking lot. He said, 'This is where I met you, and this is where I want us to start the rest of our lives together.' We had just pulled into the parking lot. There was nobody there."

“Many people told us we were too young," Nicole said. “We just brushed it off. We never once thought we were too young. We always had such fun together."

“We were so far off from anything I had ever known," Nicole said. “Here I was this little naive girl from Alabama off in a big city, where I didn't know anybody there except his Marine buddies. I had no friends, and I was the biggest mama's girl ever. But Matthew took really good care of me. Every night, he'd hold me and tell me it's going to be OK. It's going to get better."

And it did. Nicole said she became the “mom" for all his buddies, cooking for them, especially on holidays. And after she got a job as a branch manager in a bank, she began to make her own friends, and he would bring lunch to her at work. When they returned to Alabama to visit their families, they always looked forward to getting back home to their little townhouse in Washington.

Soon after the couple found out Matthew was going to be deployed to Iraq on Labor Day 2005, Nicole had another surprise. She was going to have a baby. It was not something they had planned to do until after he got out of the Marines and they had both finished college.

“But Matthew was so excited, I soon got into it. This really is going to be awesome," she said. “Now, it's like God did this for a reason. He gave us this little girl for a huge reason."

Nicole moved back to Alabama after Thanksgiving to prepare for the baby and her husband's return. He had been granted permission to leave in time to get home by her due date in March.

But two days before he was scheduled to start processing out of Iraq, Cpl. Matthew Conley was killed just after midnight on Feb. 19 when a bomb exploded as he stepped out of his vehicle in Ramadi, Iraq. He was a squad leader for the 37th Weaponry Division of the Marine Corps.

“Matthew was just so popular and the first and only from Lauderdale County to die in Iraq, we knew a lot of people would want to come to his funeral," Tommy Conley said. “So we asked the principal if we could have it there."

Tommy Conley said so many people attended that, by the time the hearse pulled into the cemetery 15 miles away, cars were still pulling out of the school parking lot. Some didn't even get to the cemetery in time for the graveside service.

“We had Matthew for 21 good years and wish we could have him a lot more," said mother Debbie Conley. “Now, we have part of him in little Catherine. She has his beautiful blue eyes and pretty, long eyelashes. She's a sweetheart.

Debbie Conley said that her son had gotten a book on being a father, and the other Marines in his unit made fun of him for reading it. He told one of his buddies it was the most boring book he had ever read, but he had to read it because he wanted to be the best father ever.

He also loved watching the History Channel and playing sports. His father said he played every sport available during school, including golf. By the time he was a senior, he dropped everything except football, where he was quarterback, and basketball so he could keep up with his studies.

“We were real competitive," Noe said. “So when we were little, we were always playing sports – every kind of sport, baseball, basketball, football –competing against each other.

“Matthew was more like a brother than a cousin," Noe said. “We were as close as you could get. For 15 years, not a day went by we didn't see each other. He followed me everywhere I went. Everything I did, he wanted to do. He was a lot like me."

“He said no, not at all. He felt like it was his job, his duty to be there," Noe said. “He wasn't scared of much. I know he wasn't scared over there."

“He was always the kind of person that when he laughed, it didn't matter what he was laughing at, you had to laugh with him. But when something serious happened, he was right there – got to do this and do that.

A Marine in her husband's unit wrote Nicole a letter telling her how he and his buddies had been stumped by aluminum foil that had come in a care package sent by a church.

“They didn't know what else to do with it. And Matthew said 'We're going to make swords, helmets and shields.' And they were sitting there playing with them and laughing hysterically when a bomb went off. And Matthew instantly went into 'Get down, get the truck, got to go.' That was the night his first roommate got killed. Because they got out there so quick, they only lost one person instead of three others," she said.

To pay tribute to her husband, Nicole set up a scholarship in his name for students from their high school interested in attending college. Recipients are chosen based on their leadership abilities. Several fundraisers have been held, including a golf tournament a couple of weeks ago that was attended by several of Matthew Conley's fellow Marines.

“I told Matthew before he passed away that he woke up every day over there a hero," Nicole said. “And I tell him every time I visit him at the grave, he was a hero to me long before he got there."

This is cache, read story here