Katelyn Faith Pauling, who helped change Minnesota's marijuana laws, died Friday, just months before the drug that might have eased her seizure disorder becomes legal.

She was 8 years old.

"She did a lot while she was here," said her father, Jeremy Pauling, who spent much of last year traveling from the family's home in Montevideo to St. Paul, where he and his wife lobbied lawmakers to legalize medical marijuana, with Katelyn beside them in her wheelchair.

Cannabis oil can be used to treat children with seizure disorders in almost half the states in the country now -- in some cases reducing their seizures from hundreds a day to almost zero. After months of lobbying by families like the Paulings, Minnesota lawmakers passed a limited marijuana legalization bill here that goes into effect in July.

"Bringing her [to the Capitol] and letting people hear her story changed a lot of people's minds and is going to help a lot of people," Pauling said. "If my little girl can do that to help somebody else's little girl or boy, I'm happy. It makes me feel better inside."

Katelyn was the youngest of the three Pauling daughters. Her big sisters, Kaylee, 12, and Kassey, 11, wrote her obituary. Their story celebrates the memory of the bouncy little girl she used to be -- a happy child who loved sparkly outfits and ponies and taking flying leaps off the top bunk of the bunk bed.

Katelyn, center, with sisters Kassey and Kaylee, before her illness.

That little girl's life was stolen away, bit by bit, by Batten disease, a rare, fatal neurological condition that triggered severe seizures that gradually confined Katelyn to a wheelchair and robbed her of the ability to speak.

"She started out as a happy, healthy little girl, until the age of three, when she started having seizures," said Pauling, who serves on the governor's Task Force on Medical Cannabis Therapeutic Research, representing the parents of young patients. "She was running and jumping and playing with her sisters. When the disease took over, it took her away from us."

Her sisters remember her as a little girl whose face would light up every time they visited the family farm. Watching Katelyn smile "was the best thing ever," Kaylee wrote.

Things that made Katelyn smile included school, when she was feeling well enough; riding her pony, Baby; camping; boat rides; and most of all, her family and the wide circle of friends who rallied to support the Paulings. The city of Montevideo voted to invite a medical cannabis clinic to set up shop in the city of 5,000, so the family wouldn't have to drive hours to dispensaries in Minneapolis of St. Cloud. So far, none of the sites chosen for the state's eight medical marijuana distribution centers has been anywhere near the southwestern corner of the state.

The family has established a fund in Katelyn's name to benefit research into Batten's disease. Memorial contributions can be made to the Katelyn Faith fund at Midwest Bank or at BDSRA.org.

"We've gotten a lot of support from all over the state of Minnesota," Pauling said. "It helps us heal a little bit."

In her short life, Katelyn Faith Pauling left a legacy larger than some leave in an full lifetime.

"She did more than a lot of people I know, to help other people," Jeremy Pauling said. "She was here for a reason. I think she fulfilled her reason and she said, 'Dad, I'm done fighting. I don't want to hurt no more.'"

Katelyn's funeral will be Wednesday morning at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Montevideo. Burial will follow at St. John's Lutheran Cemetery.

Medical marijuana will be legal in Minnesota on July 1. The first two dispensaries will open in Minneapolis and Eagan, with six more distribution sites set to open in the following weeks or months. The drug will only be legal in pill or liquid form and only for patients with certain medical conditions, although the State Health Department is evaluating whether to expand the program to cover other conditions, like intractable pain.