Born in Houston, Dow studied at the Juilliard School. She returned to Texas after graduating in 1942, but then moved to New York in 1944 to begin her career with recitals and performances with symphony orchestras.

She was known for her performance in Schoenberg's one-character opera Erwartung, which she performed in Europe, and her appearance as Chrysothemis in Richard Strauss's Elektra at La Scala. According to the Chronicle, she first achieved prominence in the immolation scene in Wagner's G‹tterd‹mmerung, which she performed in 1947 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy.

After retiring from singing, Dow went on to teach history at Rutgers University. She retired in 1968, and moved to Galveston, Texas.