Toby McKenzie

1954–2013

Steve Allen “Toby” McKenzie was born in Cleveland, Tennessee, and graduated from Bradley Central High School, where he played on the football team. He and his family lived in a public housing project. He started on his entrepreneurial career by delivering newspapers in Cleveland.

He and his first wife, Brenda Lawson, started a rent-to-own chain of stores in 1987, which they sold for $13 million; started a second rent-to-own chain, which they sold for $25 million; and then became pioneers in the lucrative check-cashing business, forming a chain of 870 stores. They sold those stores for $450 million. McKenzie, alone or together with his former wife Brenda Lawson, provided funds for the Lawson addition to Neyland Thompson; paid off the debt for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga arena; established an endowed chair at UTC; gave major funding for athletics to secondary schools; gave $1 million to Lee College for its athletics program, and funded a very long list of buildings and programs in East Tennessee.

His real estate development company filed for bankruptcy in August 2008, after failing to make payments on a bank loan. After failing to complete payment of his portion of the pledge to the Step Up campaign for Tennessee Athletics, his name was removed from the McKenzie Lawson Athletics Center (which then became the Brenda Lawson Athletics Center). The Marketing and Broadcast Suite in the center was named in recognition of the contributions he had made toward the project.

Citation Information

The following information is provided for citations.

  • Title Toby McKenzie
  • Coverage 1954–2013
  • Author
  • Keywords Toby McKenzie
  • Website Name Volopedia
  • Publisher University of Tennessee Libraries
  • URL
  • Access Date July 8, 2025
  • Original Published Date
  • Date of Last Update October 9, 2018