``I never dreamed I'd live to be this old,'' Estelle Caldwell Overstreet said as she turned 100 on Sept. 29, 2007.

She'd have two more years to ponder a life that spanned more than a century.

Overstreet -- who settled on Key Biscayne in 1914 with her family, graduated from the short-lived Coconut Grove High School in 1925, and in 1962, inherited what became the Grove's fabled Taurus restaurant from her employer of 37 years -- died at home in the Grove on Nov. 6.

She was 102 and had outlived her husband, two brothers and both children. She left four grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

``She had a good mind until the end,'' said daughter-in-law JoAnn Mobley Overstreet of Atlanta. JoAnn is the widow of James D. Overstreet Jr., who died in 1995. Estelle's daughter, Janet Frey, died in February.

Shortly before her last birthday party in September -- a big bash featuring a lobster dinner -- Estelle Overstreet ``wanted to go to the beauty shop and get her nails done,'' said her friend, Arva Moore Parks, the Miami historian.

A unique repository of local lore, Overstreet had a flawless memory, said Parks. ``Her knowledge of real estate history was remarkable,'' said Parks. ``She also taught Sunday School at Plymouth Congregational Church for many years and wrote its history. She gave the church their rose garden'' in memory of Irving J. Thomas, the real estate mogul, her one-time employer and benefactor, and took teens on church trips.

``If someone asked me a question, I'd call Estelle first,'' said Parks. ``If she didn't know, then I'd look it up. . . She knew the Grove like the back of her hand, and she kept everything.''

Born in Dalton, Ga., Estelle Caldwell was 7 when her father took a job on Hugh Matheson's Key Biscayne coconut plantation. She had twin younger brothers, one of whom died as an infant.

Russell, her surviving brother, lived in the Grove until his death in 1985.

`PATH IN THE WOODS'

Two years ago, Overstreet told The Miami Herald that as kids, ``we had to go back and forth by boat'' to school. ``My father had a mule and wagon, and Brickell was just a path in the woods.''

` While Estelle was still a child, her father built ``a little cracker house'' in the 2800 block of Day Avenue in the Grove, long gone.

The family ``had to boil water in the back yard on Saturdays to wash clothes,'' JoAnn said. ``This was out in the boonies. . . She remembered watching Plymouth [Congregational] Church being built,'' which later became central to her life.

Her parents divorced, after which she saw her father only once. Estelle graduated second in her class from Coconut Grove High, now the elementary school -- famed lawyer William Jennings Bryan spoke at her graduation -- and two weeks later went to work as Irving Thomas' bookkeeper/assistant.

Thomas and partner Fin Pierce developed Commodore Plaza, built the Grove Movie Theater -- later Coconut Grove Playhouse -- a nearby subdivision, a gas station and office building across from the theater, and a restaurant called La Casita, which became the Taurus. In addition, Thomas served as mayor of what was then the City of Coconut Grove.

After Thomas' only child died in an accident, he essentially adopted Estelle and ``took over the Overstreets,'' JoAnn said. He left her La Casita and the gas station.

She sold it in the late 1960s.