Estelle S. Macdonald moved to Phoenix, Arizona in late 1953 to join her grandparents, Yia Yia and Papou. In no time at all, Estelle found her way on to the Lew King Rangers Show, becoming a regular along with the likes of Wayne Newton and Linda Sue Riskas.

She continued with her musical endeavors becoming an accomplished pianist. Following high school graduation in 1965, Estelle enrolled at Northern Arizona University and stayed there for two years. Then, she transferred to ASU's theater program. She wanted to learn all about theater and involved herself in diverse aspects of theater such as performing, costumes, make-up, and directing. She designed costumes and makeup for numerous Valley theaters, but her real calling was directing.

Her studies at ASU were interrupted in 1969 with an unusual performing opportunity: she and four friends were selected for a USO tour, entertaining troops in Alaska and Southeast Asia. 

After returning from the USO tour, she resumed studies at ASU Theater, and in the fall of 1970, she had her first student directing project, a reader's theater-style play called, U.S.A, which she took to Phoenix Little Theater and several retirement communities in Mesa.

About this time, Estelle envisioned a production on the Lyceum stage, done entirely by students, to raise money for a student scholarship fund. She turned her vision into reality by producing and directing Little Mary Sunshine, a musical take-off on the Canadian Mountie operetta films of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald from the 1930s. A musical is an ambitious project because it is inherently more complex, involving coordination of not only acting, but singing, musical accompaniment, and choreography. In addition, a musical typically has larger casts which means more costumes, bigger, sets, etc. On top of this, Estelle cast not only student performers, but several of the faculty from the departments of theater, speech communications, and English. The production was so successful that the show was invited to perform at a retirement communities in West Phoenix and Mesa. This established Estelle as a serious director. Following her graduation with her BA in 1971, Estelle pursued an MA in Theater at ASU and she was awarded a graduate teaching assistantship in the speech communications department.

For the next four years, Estelle was an in-demand theater director in the Valley. A partial list of Valley productions includes three main stage productions at Phoenix Little Theater, today known as The Phoenix Theater Company. The first was the winner of the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-Moon Marigolds, followed by a musical spoof on the Busby Berkeley movie musicals of the 1930s, Dames at Sea, done that following summer. Her third show at PLT was The Amorous Flea. Estelle directed two plays for Scottsdale Stagebrush Theater, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. She also directed and performed in a pair of one-act plays at The Spice of Life restaurant entitled Saturday Night at the Movies and The Problem. Rounding out the list of her major productions are Eugene O'Neil's only comedy, Ah, Wilderness!, at Scottsdale Community College and a Phoenix Little Theater production of the children's classic, Androcles and the Lion, where Estelle was the director of youth theater for a time. 

She was also named resident director of Scottsdale Theater for Children, a professional group performing children's theater in Scottsdale schools.

She and Bruce Macdonald collaborated on many artistic ventures including the revival of the San Carlos Hotel in downtown Phoenix. While there, they lived in the penthouse suite on top of the building, ran the restaurant and hosted a number of downtown events, one of which included depositing 150 tons of sand in the street for a beach party.

Memorial and Funeral Services were held on : August 6, 2025. 

In lieu of flowers, it would be Estelle's wish that donations be made to:The Nativity Assumption of the Virgin Mary aka Panagia Greek Orthodox Church in Cohasset, MA.