Born in Richland, Kansas, Disney was the son of Wesley and Elizabeth Matney Disney, and attended the public schools of Kansas. He was graduated from the law department of the University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1906. He was admitted to the Kansas bar in 1906, the Oklahoma bar in 1908, and began practice in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1908. On September 22, 1910, he married Anna Van Sant, and they had two sons.[1]
Elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-second and to the six succeeding Congresses, Disney served from March 4, 1931, to January 3, 1945.[3] He was on the Banking and Currency Committee as well as the Ways and Means Committee, making him known as "watchdog of the Treasury". Not a candidate for renomination in 1944, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator. He continued to practice law in Washington, D.C., and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was also a successful lobbyist.