She completed high school in Prince Albert and won a scholarship to the University of Saskatchewan, where she took an honours course in English and French.
She was active in student affairs, serving on the student council and the executives of the YWCA and Penta Kai Deka, and as the staff artist of the Sheaf.
McKay was a member of the U of S women’s ice hockey team in 1915 and played hockey on university-affiliated teams until well into the 1920s.
In the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 she worked as a volunteer nurse — her name is painted on the stairwell in the College Building — and was chosen to unveil the plaque commemorating the undergraduate student who died.
When she graduated in 1915 McKay was hired as assistant librarian of the University Library, and later became the first secretary-treasurer of the University of Saskatchewan Alumni Association (established in 1917).
McKay worked at the Library until her retirement in 1959.