From 1919 to 1921, McKenzie engaged in petroleum drilling at Wichita Falls and nearby Burkburnett, Texas. He returned to Monroe and operated businesses relating to oil, natural gas, finance-brokerage, trucking, and insurance.
He also had agricultural pursuits.
From 1940 to 1942, McKenzie served as executive assistant director in the former Louisiana Department of Highways, now the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Thereafter, he was the director of planning, housing, and aeronautics in the Louisiana Department of Public Works in 1942 and 1943. Both assignments were during the administration of GovernorSam H. Jones, a figure in the anti-Long faction.
Congress
In 1943, McKenzie challenged incumbent congressman Newt V. Mills for the Democratic nomination and won by a small margin. The election results were challenged by Mills. Ultimately, Mills dropped the challenge and conceded to McKenzie.[1] McKenzie was elected as a Democrat to the 78th and 79th Congresses (January 3, 1943–January 3, 1947). McKenzie was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1946, having lost to Otto E. Passman, a favorite of the Long faction.[2]
Later career and death
McKenzie then resumed supervision of his business enterprises in Monroe, where he died at the age of fifty-nine. He is interred there at Riverview Cemetery.
^"U.S. Probe of Election Will Be Continued". No. Main Edition, Page 16. The Times (Shreveport, Louisiana). November 4, 1942.
^Billy Hathorn, "Otto Passman, Jerry Huckaby, and Frank Spooner: The Louisiana Fifth Congressional District Campaign of 1976", Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. LIV, No. 3 (Summer 2013), p. 334
