Among her other roles was young Sarah Lincoln (the older sister)

[David Lockmiller]

Fay McKenzie died on April 16, 2019 at 101, almost the length of her screen career. Ms. McKenzie made her screen debut in 1918, when she was 10 weeks old, cradled in Gloria Swanson’s arms in “Station Content,” a five-reel silent romance.

She appeared opposite Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, in “Down Mexico Way,” followed by “Sierra Sue,” also in 1941, and “Cowboy Serenade,” “Heart of the Rio Grande” and “Home in Wyomin,’ ” all in 1942.

Among her other roles was young Sarah Lincoln (the older sister) in “The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln” (1924).

While she could ride a horse, she wasn’t skillful enough to do stunts — though “you do everything — if you want to work,” Ms. McKenzie said. That resolve was severely tested on the set of one western when she was asked to drive a buckboard.

“Oh, sure!” she recalled replying. “I thought I was going to perish,” she said. “I jumped on the wagon — a-raring to go. The horses took off, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, Lord, this is the end of me!’ Then the director yelled, ‘Cut!’ and those horses stopped on a dime!”