Estella went by the name of Zalame. She was born on 28 May 1908 in Bowling Green, Kentucky and was the daughter of Richard Levi Brashear and Della Zoleme Campbell. Her parents were both born in Bowling Green. Her father died when she was two years old in 1911. She had two brothers Robert Lansdale Brashear and Richard Herschel Campbell Brashear and a sister Kathleen Hope Brasher. She grew up on her parents farm just north of Bowling Green. Her parents were the first commercial florists in the city and had three greenhouses. Her brother Robert also had several bee hives and they raised bees and sold fresh honey.

The Brashear family were all long time members of Christ Episcopal Church in Bowling Green and were all active in church affairs. Zalame graduated from Bowling Green High School on 30 May 1927 after having secretly married Taylor Cosby Cottrell, Sr. in Gallatin Tennessee by a Justice of the Peace. Zalame and T.C. moved around the eastern part of the U.S. for many years while he pursued various jobs, first with Kyrock Asphalt, then with DuPont, and later with Bluegrass Airlines in Kentucky. They finally settled in Bowling Green around 1944 and remained for many years. Zalame was a well known antique dealer in Bowling Green and she and T.C. also made many types of craft items which she pained in the Peter Hunt style and sold. She was an accomplished artist and wrote many articles for the American Home Magazine that included instructions for reproducing her original paintings.

Her husband died on 17 May 1971. Her health declined in 1990 and she moved to Florida to live with her son who was retired from the Air Force and working for a multi-national company in Cape Canaveral. In March 1990 she had a major heart attack and other medical issues which led to her becoming a semi-invalid. She was transferred from the hospital to a local care facility in Rockledge where she remained for several years until it seemed the care she was receiving at the facility had declined so she was moved to a facility in Merritt Island where she died on 9 September 1996 after a series of strokes. She was buried in the Cottrell Family Plot in Fairview Cemetery in Bowling Green, Kentucky on 11 September 1996. Her son T.C. Cottrell of Rockledge, Florida and daughter Joanna Cottrell of New York City, along with three grandchildren and one great-grandchild survived her.

Attachments include photo of family home in 1962, photo of family cemetery plot, photo of grave marker, photo of antique trunk (original design and painting by Zalame), 1960s photo of Zalame with her husband, her mother-in-law, and her son, photo of napkin box made by her husband and painted by Zalame, photo of her ancestral home, photo of mother in greenhouse.