After graduating from the University of Minnesota, she was sent abroad where she studied with the Wagnerian soprano Mathilde Mallinger (1847–1920) in Berlin and Aglaja Orgeni in Dresden.

[2] Early in her career, Bessessen made successful concert tours in the U.S. and Europe, appearing with various European opera companies.

[2] In 1910, she created a principal role of a new opera in Germany, Das Gelobnes, composed by Baroness Cornelie Van Osterzee.

[2] At the organization's meetings, she was influential toward educating the members to a higher appreciation of music and the opera, by speeches and explanatory remarks.

[7] The theater was used during the season as a movie house, with certain times reserved for concerts and public recitals of the pupils of the school.

[9] She married Dr. William A. Bessessen of Albert Lea, Minnesota, January 4, 1915 at the Odin Club, Minneapolis, which was founded by her father.