Born in La Grande, Oregon, McKennon's best-known roles were that of Gumby for Art Clokey, and Archie Andrews for Filmation's Archie series, and the primary voice of Buzz Buzzard in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons. In the early 1950s, McKennon created and hosted his own daily kids TV wraparound show, Space Funnies/Capt. Jet, which was seen weekday mornings on KNXT (KCBS) TV Ch. 2 in Hollywood, California. Space Funnies was the first Los Angeles-based kids show to air reruns of The Little Rascals and Laurel & Hardy Film Comedies. He was also the primary voice actor for the 1960 cartoon series Q.T. Hush. McKennon was also the voice of Hardy Boys sidekick Chet Morton in the 1969 animated mystery series.
McKennon married his childhood sweetheart, Betty Warner, in Portland, Oregon in 1942. The marriage lasted until he died of natural causes on July 14, 2009, five days before his 90th birthday, at the Willapa Harbor Care Center in Raymond, Washington. The couple had six daughters and two sons. They lived in California until 1968, when they moved to Cannon Beach, Oregon, from where Dallas commuted for acting and voiceover roles.
