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Rosina Lawrence was born to George and Annie Louise Lawrence. When she was 9, the family moved to California where her father found work as a set builder in the movie studios. The future actor had suffered a very mild paralysis to her left side when she was young but it all but disppeared thanks to her using extensive dance classes as a form of therapy. Her abilities as a dancer, and the fact that her father was in a position to introduce her casting agents, led initially to roles as a dancer. At 20 she worked at Fox Studios where she made a number of films with Alice Faye, Edward Everett Horton, and others before obtaining a long-term contract with Hal Roach Studios. She appeared as the teacher "Miss Lawrence" in a number of Our Gang shorts including the Oscar-winning Bored of Education, as well as some Laurel & Hardy comedies. Lawrence is usually remembered for her role in their 1937 feature, Way Out West. She retired from acting in 1939 when she married a distinguished Italian-American judge, Juvenal Marchisio, of Brooklyn. Judge Marchisio died in 1973. Rosina Lawrence married the author John McCabe on June 8, 1987.