Ted Hawkins was born near Rock, Kansas, on June 12, 1911 and is primarily know as a printmaker.  He attended country schools near Rock before his family moved to Winfield. He attended Southwestern College for two years then enrolled at the Wichita Art Association in 1931 and studied with William Dickerson.

He won a scholarship to the Minneapolis (MN) School of Art, graduating in 1935. He worked as a free-lance artist, an art director for Semco Color Press in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and then joined the McCormick-Armstrong art department in Wichita in 1939. He also worked as an instructor at the Wichita Art Association. and participated in the Federal Art Project.

Ted Hawkins died in  Wichita, Kansas on July 21, 1969.