Published: December 07, 2006 11:36 pm      

Family grieves loss of soldier

Friends and family continue to grieve the death of Staff Sgt. Robert L. Love Jr., 28, of Livingston, Ala., who was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb, the Department of Defense reported Thursday.

Love was killed last Friday in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, when the bomb exploded near his vehicle during combat operations, the Defense Department said. He was a graduate of Livingston High School, where he played in the band, family said.

He had served in the Army for eight years.

“He was a very sweet person who got along with everybody — everybody loved him and he loved everybody,” said his mother, Mary Love, who resides in Livingston.

He is survived by his wife, Brianna, who remains stationed in Germany, and two daughters.

“He was a great father, a great husband and a great son,” Mary Love said.

Love’s body will be brought back to Livingston on Dec. 17, Mary Love said.

Love is also survived by his aunt, Bobbie Moore, and his grandmother, Annie Williams, both of Meridian. Love was assigned to the 16th Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Giessen, Germany.

Love is the 47th soldier with strong Mississippi ties to die in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an unofficial Associated Press count.

Air Force Capt. Kermit Evans, a native of Hollandale and a graduate of Mississippi State University, died Monday when a helicopter transporting soldiers went down in a lake in Iraq.