Raebrun "Ray" Van Buren was born in Pueblo, Colorado and was a distant relative of Presedent Martin Van Buren. He was both a cartoonist and a magazine story illustrator. Van Buren was taught cartooning from the comic strip artist Harry Wood at the Kansas City Star. Van Buren moved to New York and illustrated for Puck, Life, and The Saturday Evening Post.
Van Buren served in the old Seventh Regiment of the 27th New York Empire Division during World War I. He was the art editor of the division's magazine Gas Attack and his artwork for this magazine was recognized by the New York Times. After the war he additionally worked as a freelance illustrator for Collier's, Redbook, McCall's, The New Yorker, and Esquire.
One of Van Buren's most famous cartoon strips was Abbie an' Slats about a rural spinster raising her streetwise urban cousin. The strip ran from 1937 until Van Buren's retirement in 1971. Van Buren was also the founder of the National Society of Magazine Illustrators.
