Zandrea Bailey, a finalist in 2014 Miss Universe Jamaica competition, died in a New York hospital yesterday. She was 29.

Bailey, who has been battling lupus, was admitted at the institution for several weeks.

Karl Williams, co-principal of Uzuri International — the Miss Universe Jamaica franchise holders, remembers Bailey as “a remarkable young woman with a million-dollar smile”.

“She was an amazing young lady, really smart, and really likeable. Her cause during the pageant had been to raise awareness about lupus, and I really thought she would have pulled through,” said Williams.

Mark McDermott is the other co-principal of Uzuri International.

Bailey had been diagnosed with lupus in 2012. Then in 2014, Bailey lost her mother to lupus and that same year, she emerged as a finalist in the Miss Universe Jamaica pageant.

“I had met her two years before she entered the contest and I had encouraged her to enter, then she had called me back the following year saying that she felt ill and said: ‘Karl, I can’t do it now.’ When she returned to enter the following year, she had gained a lot of weight, but she came to the pageant and worked it off and was one of our standout contestants, placing in the top ten; she really used the platform to raise awareness of the lupus disease,” said Williams.

Bailey was one of the standout contestants at the 2014 Miss Universe Jamaica final.

“She was a crowd favourite because of her natural hair, her beautiful dark skin and her million-dollar smile. After the pageant, we kept in touch, she was really close to Kaci Fennell who is torn up about it. Zandrea will be sadly missed,” Williams added.

Fennell won the local leg of the contest in 2014 and placed fourth runner-up to Paulina Vega of Colombia.