Hundreds pay last respects to Amesbury soldier who died in Iraq

Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff

Hundreds lined the route as the funeral procession, led by thundering motorcyclists, rolled under an American flag stretched across the road in Amesbury.

By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff

Hundreds of people lined the route from a Newburyport funeral home to an Amesbury church today, despite the pouring, cold rain, to pay their last respects to a soldier from the area who died last week in Iraq.

Specialist Jordan Shay

In the funeral service, which filled the church to capacity, Sergeant Jordan M. Shay was remembered as "a true and steady friend to all who crossed his path" by his mother, Holly.

"I am heartbroken Jordan is no longer on this earth," she said. "He was and is everything to this family."

She recalled him as a young man who loved to write and whose teenage angst seemed to lift when he met his fiancée, Kelsey Chandonnet, who encouraged him to reach his potential.

"It was like the sun came out," she said.