Walter Elias Disney was one of five children of the contractor, Elias Disney (1859-1941) and his wife Flora Call ( 1868-1938 ) . His father was a Canadian from a family of Irish origin . The German American mother came from Ohio. They married in 1888 in Florida. Disney grew up with his parents, his sister Ruth and brothers Herbert , Raymond and Roy up on a farm in Missouri. All children had to help on the farm , but Walt Disney has always been interested in drawing and took 14 years for the first time participate in an art class in Kansas City / Missouri. After he had been an ambulance driver in the United States Army in France during the First World War, he began with character artists Ubbe " Ub " Iwerks , the Disney later the model for Mickey Mouse designed to draw short promotional films. Along with his brother Roy , he produced a series of short films entitled Alice Comedies , which also Black Pete occurred for the first time . Even then he mixed , as later with Mary Poppins , cartoon with real actors.
On 13 July 1925 he married Lilian Marie Bounds ( 1899-1997 ) in Lewiston , Idaho. The couple had two daughters, Diane Marie Disney (1933-2013) and Sharon Mae Disney ( 1936-1993 ) .