Zillah Lee Bostick Redd Agerton was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1871, moved to Augusta, Georgia at the age of 10 where she lived until 1895 when she moved to Waynesboro. She graduated from Tubman High School and Georgia Normal School with a certification to teach.

Mrs. Agerton was poet laureate of Burke County, historian of the First Presbyterian Church and active member of numerous civic clubs in the area including the Edmond Burke Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Margaret Jones Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Governor John Milledge Chapter of the US Daughters of 1812, Women's Christian Temperance Union, and Waynesboro Garden Club. She was the author of the History of the Waynesboro Presbyterian Church, 1930. She also contributed to many papers and magazines.

Additionally, Mrs. Agerton was a fellow of the Institute of American Genealogists, doing extensive research on many families.