A method actor, she first took acting classes at her local YMCA while in her 50s, when she "decided to reinvent" herself after spending the first part of her adult life as a homemaker.
Between 1989 and 2019, Bowman primarily appeared in bit roles, such as, "Old Nanny" in three episodes of A Woman of Independent Means (1995), and as "Fat Lady" in The Lone Ranger (2013).
In 1995, Bowman was cast by Tommy Lee Jones in the TNT TV movie The Good Old Boys, as "an old woman, Mrs. Faversham, whose mind has gone."
Bowman said she "had the character in mind before [she] even auditioned," basing it partly on her favorite waitress and partly on her own mother, who "waited tables to support herself, her mother and three daughters" and "then I came along and waited tables to support my family many years ago, so I know what it's like to stand all day and have your back hurt and your feet hurt."
The Los Angeles Times said, "She may be an unnamed waitress in Hell or High Water's diner scene but, boy, does she leave an impression.