Award-winning Hawai'i author and illustrator Melissa "Missy" DeSica, lost her 19-month battle with a rare form of leukemia on Dec. 17 at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in Washington state. She was 26.

DeSica wrote and illustrated the children's book "Gecko and Mosquito," the story about a clever mosquito who uses her brains and courage to outwit Gecko, the local lizard bully.

Dawn Sakamoto, director of sales and marketing for Watermark, publisher of the book, said, "Missy was a courageous underdog in a difficult battle. Throughout treatment, Missy remained upbeat and positive, cracking jokes about her "new hair (or lack thereof)."

"She was funny," said Castle High School teacher and DeSica's close friend, Kathy Burt, whose son Alan Burt was DeSica's fiance. "She had all the nurses and doctors laughing."

DeSica, a 2005 University of Hawai'i graduate, also illustrated "Eddie Wen' Go: The Story of the Upside-Down Canoe," by Marion Lyman-Mersereau, and "Wordsworth Dances the Waltz" by Frances H. Kakugawa.

"Missy will always be with us with her accomplishments and the person who she was" said Kakugawa.

DeSica was raised by her grandmother in rural Waimanalo. By the time she graduated from Kailua High School in 2000, she had already received recognition for her artistic ability. She graduated from the University of Hawai'i'i-Manoa with a B.A. in Fine Arts, English and French. She was a Rhodes Scholar and a Gilman Scholar, and won numerous awards as a writer and illustrator.

In the fall of 2005 DeSica was among a group of UH students who studied in Paris. In addition to her French studies, she became absorbed in a personal musical project, traveling the Metro subway and speaking to the international musicians who performed for coins in the resonant tunnels.

"She had something very special in her personality and temper," recalled GeneviEve Delas, DeSica's French teacher, after learning of her former student's death. "It was obvious to me she was gifted in a lot of fields, besides her infectious joy and humor."

Animals and friends played a big role in her life. She had numerous pets. "I had the good fortune to study a bit in France and a semester in Washington, D.C., as an intern," she wrote in an e-mail to high school pals. "When I'm not studying languages and art I'm chillin' with the boyfriend or rolling around in the backyard with members of my personal zoo."

A service for DeSica will be held Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Kailua Community Church, 250 Oneawa St. Donations may be made to the Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry.