Hazel Sewell Cottrell – my 247th pick to be named a Disney Legend

Hazel Sewell Cottrell, Walt Disney's sister-in-law and one-time head of ink and paint department, is my 247th pick to be named a Disney Legend. Hazel began her Disney career in the 1923 working in the “Ink & Paint Department” painting the celluloids sheets from the animators drawings to get ready for camera to shoot each cell. By 1924, Lilly had begun work at Walt Disney Studios on Kingswell Avenue with Hazel following suit not long after. Eventually, Walt appointed his talented sister-in-law to Head of the Ink-and-Paint Department after recognizing her technical skill, diligence and keen eye.


In 1938, Hazel married Snow White sequence director and trusted Disney employee, Bill Cottrell. She accompanied her husband to Latin America in 1941 as a part of Walt’s goodwill tour of the region. The traveling party aptly dubbed themselves “El Grupo.”