Zakrajšek was born into a large peasant family in the village of Opalkovo in the Municipality of Velike Lašče, Central Slovenia, Slovenia (then Austria-Hungary), on 28 October 1912. She had five sisters and four brothers. Her mother lived to be 89 years old. As a young woman, she moved to Ljubljana where she learned how to knit.

Zakrajšek never married because, as she claimed, there was no opportunity for her to marry due to the circumstances of the Second World War. She had a boyfriend who was drafted at the beginning of the war and never returned. She spent the most of her adult life in Ljubljana, where she worked.

After retiring, she returned to her native village of Opalkovo, where she lived with her sister. Around 2011, they moved to live with their niece in the village of Podulaka. In the following years, both her sister and niece passed away, leaving her to live alone.