<strong>Who: </strong>Rachel Leek, 20, of Lawrence.</p><p><strong>When and how she died: </strong>Oct. 16, when struck by a hit-and-run driver.</p><p><strong>Young artist: </strong>Rachel Leek grew up in an artistic family and was a talented visual artist. She began making short movies as a teenager, when her father gave her a video camera that she used to tape funny skits about her youngest brother&rsquo;s life that featured her little sister.</p><p>While she was taking a semester off from the University of Kansas, Leek took photography courses at the Lawrence Arts Center and was developing her style of black and white photos that captured motion and people&rsquo;s energy.</p><p>She also drew pastels and wrote poetry. In one work, Leek inscribed a poem on a picture of a house, describing life as something that grows big and bright and comes out in different colors.</p><p>She was putting her energy into following her heart, her sister Jane Leek said. She wanted to learn life on her own. She had a lot of dreams.</p><p><strong>A bright light: </strong>At work, Leek left doodles behind the WheatFields Bakery counter in Lawrence to amuse her co-workers.</p><p>She was a bright light to everybody, said co-worker Liberty Hollis.</p><p>Jane Patrick, the bakery&rsquo;s general manager, said Leek made a point of being gracious to everyone regardless of how hectic things got.</p><p>She had the gift even as a little girl, the ninth of 11 children and the first to be born in Olathe.</p><p>She was imperturbable, said her father, Jim Leek. No one could get her upset &mdash; her older brothers and sisters tried, but they never could bother her. Everybody liked her; she was a calm island of peace.</p><p>Even customers who never learned Leek&rsquo;s name remembered her bright smile and the friendly attention she gave everyone. </p><p>One of them recalled going back to the busy bakery to look for a trinket her children had left. The woman wrote to Leek&rsquo;s family that she thought it was gone for good until she saw Leek hurrying toward her through the crowd with the toy.</p><p><strong>Dependable worker: </strong>Leek was good with technology and had an uncanny gift with mechanics from an early age. If a car window wouldn&rsquo;t crank anymore, her father said, Leek worked on it until it did.</p><p>Leek helped the family fix up homes to rent. She brought her artistic eye to an Italianate house in Fort Scott, Kan., that was almost falling apart, and brightened the kitchen with mottled paint that resembled fresh plaster when she was done.</p><p>She had a great work ethic, her father said. You could give her a job and never have to go back and check.</p><p><strong>Loved nature: </strong>Leek noticed the beauty in nature. She liked to fish with her father at Bennett Spring, Mo., where trout flash through crystal-clear water. She was patient and didn&rsquo;t get discouraged while casting over and over.</p><p>Living with her sister Jane in Lawrence, Leek took advantage of the yard. She grew kale, beets, tomatoes, peppers and greens, not just to have the fresh produce but also because she wanted to learn how to till the soil, when to plant and the right time to harvest.</p><p>When she drew, her pastels colored trees, sunsets and other natural landscapes.</p><p>Leek loved movie romances when she was a teenager but later liked films such as &ldquo;Into the Wild,&rdquo; the story of a man who gave up his possessions and set off into the Alaskan wilderness.</p><p>She liked movies about artistic loners and people who did things that were artistic and brave, her sister Jane said.</p><p><strong>Survivors include: </strong>Her parents, five brothers, five sisters, a nephew, two aunts, an uncle and three cousins.</p><p><strong>The last word: </strong>She was willing and ready, her sister Jane said, to live life and experience it in all its different facets and possibilities.