Lucy O'Laughlin Tokheim grew up in Minneapolis, studied Art at Southwest State University, textiles at Telemarks Akademi in Norway, and painting with John Ingle of the University of Minnesota, Morris.

Lucy joined her husband Gene Tokheim's operation of Tokheim Stoneware in rural Dawson. Their collaborative pieces are in the permanent collection of the Norwegian-American Vesterheim Museum and have been included in regional and international exhibitions. It was featured in Norwegian Folk Art, The Migration of a Tradition at the New York Museum of Folk Art, and Minnesota Landmark Center, and the Smithsonian Museum Store during Vikings, the North Atlantic Saga.

Their work was included in the 1994 traveling Folk Art exhibit organized by the University of Minnesota, as well as numerous alumni shows at Southwest State University. Their work was recently exhibited at the Minnesota Foundation/IDS Center: Selected Minnesota Artists. In 2002 they were chosen as Prairie Stars, the Southwest Minnesota Arts and Humanities highest award for artistic achievement.

In 1997 Tokheim showed a series of 12 oil paintings of Norwegian Folk Life at the Vesterheim Museum, and continues to paint and sell her work from the Tokheim gallery.