Lawrence Toney (1899-1970) was born in Virden, Illinois. After graduating high school in 1918, he moved to Chicago to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. He moved to New York City after finishing his art training in 1924. In 1925 he began painting covers for The Saturday Evening Post and This Week magazine. During the 1930s and ’40s he also started painting covers for pulp magazines like Clues, Complete Stories, and Wild West Weekly.

During World War I, he created many patriotic posters, but focused on painting portrait commissions after the war. His most well-known portrait is of President Eisenhower. When he retired from portrait painting he turned his focus to post-impressionist landscapes. He died in Pelham Harbor, New York.

Toney painted 12 covers for The Saturday Evening Post.