Dr. Marjorie Lee McKenzie was born April 20, 1934 in Dallas, Texas to Robert L. Smith and Virginia E. Lee. She attended North Texas University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in English in 1955. She then attended the University of Oklahoma where she earned her Masters of Arts in English in 1973 and her PhD in English in 1980. She specialized in composition theory and pedagogy, secondary school English methods, and nineteenth and twentieth century novels. Her dissertation was “Jane Austen, Henry James, and the Family Romance.”

While at the University of Oklahoma, she gained teaching experience as a graduate assistant from 1973-1977, and then as an instructor from 1980-1983. She also held the positions of Assistant Director of Freshman Composition (1981-1982), Assistant Director of the Oklahoma Writing Project (1979-1982), and Co-Director of the Oklahoma Writing Project (1982-1983).

In 1983, she began a period of short-term positions that lasted until 1986. During this period, she worked at East Central University in Oklahoma as an assistant professor, the University of Utah as a visiting professor, and at Millersville University in Pennsylvania as an assistant professor. In 1986, she was hired at Weber State College as an assistant professor in the Department of English. She worked at Weber State College for the remainder of her career, eventually being promoted to the position of professor.

During her time at Weber State College, she served on the Composition, Faculty Development, Library Ranking & Tenure, Student Computer Lab, and Teacher Education Committees. She also served on the Supervisory Committee for the Writing/ Computer Center. During her career, she was a member of the Conference on College Composition and Communications, the Modern Language Association, the National Conference of Teachers of English, and the Western Literature Association. During her career she published poems in various publications.

She passed away on March 15, 1994 from cancer.