She was born in Keachie, Louisiana, and in 1893 the family moved to Waco, Texas upon James's appointment as vice president of Baylor University.
[3] Bedichek taught at Grayson College and the Waco public school system prior to her marriage, and in Deming, New Mexico shortly before the birth of her first child.
In 1917 she resumed her teaching career at Austin High School, eventually becoming the head of the Spanish department.
[5] Harry Peyton Steger regarded her, along with her future husband, as a partner in his "intellectual firm.
"[6] Trading on her identity as "Mrs. Roy Bedichek," she wrote about life in the southwest, voicing concern about sharecropping and the future of private land ownership.