Bessie was born in Red Oak Iowa. When she was 7, her parents and uncle Sam packed all their belongings in a train car and moved to the dry-land farm in Wellington Co. The established a dairy North and East of Fort Collins where Bessie and her sisters helped their mother and father raise 15 children.

She moved into town to care for an elderly lady while Bessie attended Fort Collins High School (now the Lincoln Center). She dated and married Art Tuttle and they moved to a farm outside Fort Collins then to the a place on the buttes on (now) Highway 287 going to Laramie.

Bessie cared for her ill son for 2 years while her husband worked for the WPA during the depression. She had no phone, electricity or car but she gardened, raised chickens, pigs and cooked on a wood stove. Art always said when her brothers and sisters came to visit that "Bessie, always could throw up something."

Bessie moved to 'town' after Art died. She lived by herself in her little house on Magnolia St. for 30 years, going hunting (on a "tote goat" bike) and fishing every year with her brothers.

Her family was very important to her. She gathered with them regularly. All the children of Simon and Myrta Nims met on Bessies birthday until after her brother Rodney passed away in 1997. Now her great grand children gather at the park and renew the celebration of family.

Bessie was an avid gardner, helping Art in caring for their apple orchard, acres of glads and corn. She learned to sew from her mother-in-law and was the family seamstress. Everyone received pajamas made by grandma for Christmas. She helped her grand daughter make 7 formal dresses for her wedding then went on to teach her great grand daughter to sew. She made a quilt for each member of her family, leaving one unclompleted for a great grandchild to come.

Bessie cooked the family Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys up until the last year of her life and was still canning and freezing food that same time. She remained active until her last season when her gggrand daughter was born in 1993.