10-minute read
Sarah McKay, who was born 98 years ago in Lakeland and politely but firmly paved the way for women to lead local civic boards and make a mark as philanthropists, died peacefully Tuesday at her home, surrounded by family.
McKay was the first woman to head the boards of Lakeland General Hospital (now Lakeland Regional Health), Florida Southern College and the then-named Polk Museum of Art. She was also designated a “Great Floridian” by the Florida Department of State and a Polk Pioneer by the Polk County Historical Association.
“She very much felt she was happy to be the first in a number of these things, but she did not want to be the last,” said her daughter, Paula Mims. “She may not have had a hatchet to be making the way for people, but she paved that road with kindness and interest and civility and love.”
Mims was with her mother when she passed, along with McKay’s two older children, Mona and Kirk, her son-in-law Tom and grandson Patrick.
For more insights into the life and personality of Sarah McKay, read her family-placed obituary.
Early years
Sarah Dukes McKay was born in Lakeland in 1926, the youngest of six children born to Benjamin Hill Dukes and Carrie Dekle Dukes.
It was in her elementary school Sunday school class at College Heights Methodist Church that she met the energetic and smart Kirk McKay, Jr. Their lifelong friendship would eventually blossom into a marriage filled with laughter and adventure that lasted 48 years.
She began advocating for herself at an early age, a rare trait for girls of that era.
A representative of Wesleyan Conservatory in Macon, Georgia, spoke to one of McKay’s high school classes, and she knew she wanted to attend. But she also knew that her father might not approve without some convincing, so she invited the woman from Wesleyan to have dinner with her parents to plead her case. Her parents, who were not well off, agreed. McKay had to apply for work-study to pay for tuition, room and board, with her three sisters chipping in, too.
“That was bold, you know, in 1944,” Mims said. “And she rode the train or the bus up as an independent young woman.”
Marriage to Kirk McKay
She had dates with other boys and even had a few serious suitors.
Kirk McKay was working at his family’s furniture store at the southeast corner of Kentucky Avenue and Main Street. He used to have store employee Edgar Pickett Sr. take the day’s deposits to People’s Bank. But when Kirk McKay found out that his friend Sarah Dukes was working there as a teller, he quickly took over the chore.
While home on break from Wesleyan in 1946, Kirk McKay took her on a picnic.
“He asked her to marry him and she said, ‘Yes, I’ll do that,” Mims said, noting it was not the grand production seen with today’s couples.
She told McKay he would have to ask her parents, but he had other ideas, convincing the young teller to elope to Havana with him. They held a civil service there and then married in a Methodist church in Mexico City.
Slideshow – 7 photos:
Sarah McKay | Courtesy of the McKay family 
Sarah McKay preparing to take a hot air balloon ride in Switzerland in this undated photograph. | Courtesy of the McKay family 
Sarah McKay with Today Show Meteorologist Willard Scott in about 2008 at a Volunteers in Service to The Elderly function. | Courtesy of the McKay family 
Sarah McKay with her grandson Patrick Mims at the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College. | Courtesy of the Mims family 
At the ribbon cutting for the Dr. Sarah D. McKay and Kirk McKay Jr Archives building. | Courtesy of the McKay family 
A recent family portrait with Sarah McKay. | Courtesy of the Mims family 
A recent family picture with Sarah Mckay. | Courtesy of the McKay family
Travels and adventures
That was the start of the McKays’ grand global adventures, which took them everywhere from the mountains of Nepal to the jungles of Central America — back when travel was difficult and accommodations could be rough.
“My mom would go anywhere that my dad came up with,” Mims said. “Her only caveat was that she did not want to sleep on the ground. She would sleep on a cot, but she would not sleep on the ground.”
The McKay home is filled with the memorabilia of those trips, including a collection of carved figures from Japan and a blow gun from South America, which she would take to show-and-tell sessions at her children’s schools.
“They had traveled so extensively that teachers always wanted her to come in and tell stories of places they’ve been to for a lot of kids who hadn’t had the experiences or the ability to do that,” Mims said. “She brought in a blow gun and blow darts — they didn’t have poison, let’s be clear.”
Her travels continued with friends and family following her husband’s 1994 death.
In early 2020, a friend asked her if she had any items on her bucket list and she said she would like to go dog-sledding. The friend balked, but Mims said she got chills and knew what she had to do. She immediately went home, did some internet research, and found a company with which her then-94-year-old mother could safely travel.
“She always said that it wouldn’t have mattered if she had fallen out of the dog sled, because I had her so bundled up,” Mims laughed.
Laughter
There was a lot of laughter in the McKay household.
“They treated April Fool’s Day as a national holiday,” Mims said, smiling and recalling when her mother used to sew their clothes shut or put fake cheese in their lunches.
“My mother-in-law was a woman of grace, sincerity, fun and love for her family and her community, which she loved so dearly,” said son-in-law Tom Mims.
Tom and Paula Mims sponsor Red White & Kaboom, Lakeland’s annual July 3 fireworks show on Lake Mirror.
Businesswoman and volunteer leader
Kirk McKay Jr.’s death in 1994 saw his widow plunge herself into the family business and also the business of Lakeland. Kirk McKay was one of the founders of the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority, an agency that promotes downtown improvement.
She has also done real estate development. She did so well that the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce in 2007 presented her with its George W. Jenkins Award for Small Business, making her the first woman to receive that honor.
McKay began her philanthropic life with what was then called the Lakeland Junior Welfare League, serving as the 1964-65 league president; at the time, the organization – now known as the Junior League of Greater Lakeland – raised money for projects like the Learning Resource Center, the remodeling of the Lake Mirror Promenade and the establishment of the Polk Museum of Art, which is now the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College.
Art Museum: It began as a children’s museum, with live animals on display. A league historian spoke to McKay in recent years about that first incarnation, including one winter in the original old church building when it got so cold inside they had to “bring in a heater so the snakes wouldn’t freeze.”
That museum has evolved into a Smithsonian affiliate institution, under the wing of Florida Southern College — something else she helped to orchestrate.
“Sarah McKay was an incomparable Lakeland legend whose imprint can be felt throughout our region,” said Alex Rich, the museum’s executive director and chief curator. “As one of the founding members of the museum and its longest-serving trustees, she helped to create a legacy that has been — and will continue to be — a centerpiece of our local culture for generations.”
Florida Southern: Anne Kerr recalled being hired as Florida Southern College’s first female president in 2004 by McKay when she was chair of the FSC Board of Trustees.
“From that moment on, she extended the hand of friendship, advice, care, love, leadership,” said Kerr, who retired several months ago. “She did everything that one person could do to help another.”
Kerr recalled a trip when the pair went to Washington, D.C., as Florida Southern was being considered for National Historic Landmark status. Kerr described being nervous enough for her knees to wobble as she went down the list of talking points to a panel of officials.
“I looked in the audience, and Sarah is sitting there so calmly, nodding encouragement as I went through each of the major points,” Kerr said, adding that they had a chance to informally talk with the panel afterwards at a gathering.
“I’m convinced the reason we got it was because they were so charmed by not only her as a person, but impressed by her knowledge and commitment to higher education and the way that she spoke so knowledgeably about architecture, history, our nation, and the reasons higher education is so important to this generation of students,” Kerr said.
Florida Southern awarded McKay with an honorary doctorate of public service in 2005. In February 2009, the Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay, Jr. Archives Center was dedicated. It provides a place for the college to preserve its history by collecting, organizing, preserving, and describing the institutional history and records of Florida Southern. It also houses the historic papers of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, The Lawton Chiles Center for Florida History and the Florida citrus archives. In addition, she endowed the McKay Chair for American History, Government, and Civics.
Florida House: McKay’s interest in civics reached Washington, D.C., when she supported the dream of longtime friend Rhea Chiles, wife of then-U.S. Sen. Lawton Chiles, of opening Florida House. The 19th century home near the Capitol building is an embassy for Florida residents, funded entirely by private donations. It is the only state embassy in Washington and also has civics, history and art programs. It is free. McKay continued to be a trustee until her passing.
Mentor
Current Junior League President Katherine Fitzwater said she hopes to be able to carry on McKay’s legacy as the organization works to empower women to continue to break glass ceilings and work for the betterment of others.
“Sarah McKay was the most incredible woman,” Fitzwater said. “She took on challenges and worked diligently to make our community better. She has served as a role model to me and so many women before me.”
Former Florida Sen. Paula Bono Dockery said McKay was fascinating. Dockery said she was honored to be awarded the Sarah Dukes McKay Leadership Award from the Junior League of Greater Lakeland in 2021.
“She was strong-willed and determined but always gracious and welcoming,” Dockery said. “She was sincerely interested in other people and made you feel like you were important to her. She loved to encourage young women to reach their full potential.”
Lakeland Proud: “She really loved Lakeland, I would suspect, maybe more than anybody ever has or ever will,” Mims said, choking up. “She loved this community, and she knew there were things that needed to be improved. She noticed the good in the world and, until her last breath, she believed in the goodness of people without exception.
“I’ve heard from so many people that she was an inspiration to them. But the truth is that they inspired her, that each person who came to her with a story, a family lore of some sort, she remembered it, and she asked you about it, and she was the truest of extroverts in the sense of gaining energy from others, not to be the life of the party or be this gregarious person at all. She was graceful and kind and civic minded and beautiful inside and out.”
Sarah McKay is survived by her daughter Mona McKay Williamson, her husband Paul Williamson, their son Graham McKay Williamson and his wife Ashley Rickett, their daughter Adeline Williamson-Rickett, and their son William Tanner Williamson; McKay’s son Kirk McKay; McKay’s daughter Paula McKay Mims, her husband Tom Mims, their son Patrick Mims, their daughter Brittney Mims Hogan and her husband Brian Hogan. The couple is expecting a daughter in October.
A celebration of the life will be held at First United Methodist Church, 72 Lake Morton Drive, at 3 p.m. on Sept. 25 with a reception to follow at The AGB/Polk Museum of Art, 800 E. Palmetto St.
latest news
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.