Her father, William Henry Ray, was the president of the Duluth chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

He formed the Duluth branch in June 1920 after a white mob lynched three Black men four blocks from the Ray family home.

[2] From 1919 to 1922, Nance worked as a stenographer for the Minnesota State Relief Commission, an organization that helped the victims of a series of 1918 fires in and around Duluth.

[2][4] Nance gained national recognition in 1923 for breaking the secretarial color barrier in the Minnesota State Legislature.

While living on the west coast, she also worked for the regional office of the NAACP, the War Department, the U.S. District Court (as a deputy clerk), the Federal Public Housing Authority, and the San Francisco Board of Education.

[3] Throughout her life, Nance was also involved in several organizations, such as the Minnesota Negro Council and the San Francisco African-American Historical Society, and wrote for many publications.