Merri McKenzie

Merri McKenzie is a resident of White Springs, Florida, who has been living there since the early 1970s. She has a background in education and folk culture, having worked with the Florida Folklife Program at the Stephen Foster Center for many years and also being a retired teacher.

She is involved in the local arts community and is a member of the American Sewing Guild and Fiber Muse. Fiber Muse is a group of textile artists, which includes Merri and her sister Celeste Beck.

Merri (Belland) McKenzie originally worked as an artist-in-residence with the Stephen Foster Memorial in the early 1970s. Once the Florida Folklife Program began in 1976, she stayed on for another three years, training the public in the traditional arts. In 1979, she applied for and received a staff position with Florida Folklife. Following her work with the program, McKenzie remained in White Springs to work as an educator with the Suwannee County School system, using her folklife studies to help develop school programs in food management and other areas.

In addition to accessing and arranging folk collections, she worked on numerous Florida Folklife Program projects including the Minorcan Folklife Area, the Seminole Slide Tape Project, the Florida Folk Arts Survey, the Maritime Heritage Survey Project, the Library Folklife Program, the West Florida Folklife Survey, and the Folk Arts in the School Libraries.