She was known for making wedding dresses and debutante gowns for almost sixty years, becoming one of the most sought-after designers for women's formalwear in North Carolina.

Kay began her dressmaking business during the Jim Crow Era, catering to both black and white clientele.

Her work was also featured in The News & Observer and, in 2016, the North Carolina Museum of History presented an exhibit on her life.

[1] She was the eldest of eight children and grew up in the family home on Cabarrus Street, near downtown Raleigh's African-American Business District.

[2] Her father was a prominent African-American businessman who owned an upscale barbershop inside the Yarborough House Hotel on Fayetteville Street.

Despite racial segregation in North Carolina throughout the Jim Crow Era, Kay designed commissions for black and white clients.

[3] Instead, she preferred the sewing methods she had learned from family members over the techniques she studied at Shaw.

[1] After her husband's death, Kay relocated the family to Raleigh and took up residence in her childhood home.

[12] The exhibit included a dress worn by Doris Doscher to her son's wedding at First Baptist Church in Raleigh; a wedding gown and veil for Carolyn Dorcas Maynor; a wedding dress worn by Carolyn Cheek Palmer and later by Cathryn Cheek Zevenhuizen, an evening gown for the debutante Louise Wooten; an evening gown and overbodice worn by Kay's daughter, June, at the debut of June's daughter, Mildred Campbell; and her grandson Ralph's christening enesemble.

[3] More of Kay's designs are on display at St. Augustine's University in Raleigh and the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Ohio.