Bacon attended the Art Students League where she studied with John Sloan, Kenneth Hayes Miller and George Bellows. She began exhibiting prints and drawings at the Whitney Studio Club in 1925 and continued to exhibit in Whitney Annuals and Biennials for the next 30 years. She illustrated more than 60 books, many of them for children.

She is best remembered for her excellent draftsmanship and her ability to communicate wit and humor through the graphic line.