Born in Crestwood, Kentucky, Nay studied at the Art Center Association School in Louisville from 1934 to 1940.
[citation needed] She also took lessons at the Art Students League of New York in 1942, and in Provincetown, Massachusetts under Boris Margo from 1950 to 1951.
[citation needed] She taught at the University of Louisville for twenty years before retiring as the Marcia S. Hite professor of painting in 1979.
[1] Nay exhibited widely in solo and group shows and was a member of the Provincetown Art Association, among other organizations.
[3] A scholarship in her honor at the University of Louisville was created by the Hite Art Institute in 1993.