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James Houston Davis (September 11, 1899 – November 5, 2000), better known as Jimmie Davis, was a noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 47th Governor of Louisiana (1944–1948 and 1960–1964). Davis was a nationally popular country music and gospel singer from the 1930s into the 1960s, occasionally recording and performing as late as the early 1990s. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Davis was born in 1899 to a sharecropping couple, the former Sarah Elizabeth Works and Samuel Jones Davis, in the now-ghost town of Beech Springs near Quitman in Jackson Parish. The family was so poor that young Jimmie did not have a bed in which to sleep until he was nine years old.
He graduated from Beech Springs High School and Soule Business College, New Orleans campus. The late U.S. Representative Otto Ernest Passman, a Louisiana Democrat, also graduated from Soule, but from the Bogalusa campus. Davis received his bachelor's degree in history from the Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville. He received a master's degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Davis's 1927 master's thesis examines the intelligence levels of different races, and is titled Comparative Intelligence of Whites, Blacks and Mulattoes.
Davis taught history (and, unofficially, yodeling) for a year at the former Dodd College for Girls in Shreveport during the late 1920s. He was hired by the college president, Monroe Elmon Dodd, who was also the pastor of the large First Baptist Church of Shreveport and a pioneer radio preacher.
Davis became a commercially successful singer of rural music before he entered politics. His early work was in the style of early Country Music luminary Jimmie Rodgers, and he was also known for recording energetic and raunchy blues tunes like "Red Nightgown Blues". Some of these records included slide guitar accompaniment by black bluesman Oscar Woods. During his first run for governor, opponents reprinted the lyrics of some of these songs in order to undermine Davis's campaign. In one case, anti-Davis forces played some of the records over an outdoor sound system only to give up after the crowds started dancing, ignoring the double-entendre lyrics. Davis until the end of his life never denied or repudiated those records.
He is associated with several popular songs, most notably "You Are My Sunshine", which was designated an official state song of Louisiana in 1977. He claimed that he wrote the song while attending graduate school at LSU, but research indicates he bought it from another performer, Paul Rice, who had recorded it with his brother Hoke, who recorded together as the Rice Brothers under Paul Rice's name. The practice of buying songs from their composers was a common practice during the 1930s through the 1960s as some writers in need of cash often sold tunes to others.
Rice himself had adapted it from another person's poem. Reportedly, the song was copyrighted under Davis' name and that of longtime sideman Charles Mitchell, after they purchased it from Rice. Davis also purchased the country ballad "It Makes No Difference Now" from its composer Floyd Tillman. Tillman later had his composer credit restored alongside that of Davis.
In 1999, "You Are My Sunshine" was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and the Recording Industry Association of America named it one of the Songs of the Century. "You Are My Sunshine" was ranked No. 73 on CMT's 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music in 2003. Until his death, Davis insisted that he wrote the song. In any case, it will forever be associated with him.
Davis became the popular "singing governor" who often performed during his campaign stops. While governor, he had a No. 1 hit single in 1945 with "There's a New Moon Over My Shoulder". Davis recorded for Decca Records for decades and released over 40 albums. A long-time member of the Baptist faith, he also recorded a number of Southern gospel albums and in 1967 served as president of the Gospel Music Association. He was a close friend of the North Dakota-born band leader Lawrence Welk who frequently reminded viewers of his television program of his association with Governor Davis.
A number of his songs were used as part of motion picture soundtracks, and Davis himself appeared in half a dozen films, one with the popular entertainers Ozzie and Harriet. Members of Davis' last band included Allen "Puddler" Harris of Lake Charles, who had also been an original pianist of Ricky Nelson.
Davis was elected governor as a Democrat in 1944. He defeated Lewis L. Morgan of Covington, the seat of St. Tammany Parish, who had been backed by former Governor Earl Kemp Long and New Orleans Mayor Robert Maestri. Davis received 251,228 (53.6 percent) to Morgan's 217,915 (46.5 percent). Eliminated in the primary were a number of candidates, including freshman U.S. Representative James Hobson "Jimmy" Morrison of Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish. Sam Caldwell, the mayor of Shreveport, also sought the governorship but polled fewer than 35,000 votes. Davis and Caldwell had served together earlier in Shreveport municipal government.
Davis pleased conservatives with his appointment of Cecil Morgan to the Louisiana civil service Commission. Morgan, as a Caddo Parish legislator, had led the impeachment forces against Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr. in 1929 and later took a high position with Standard Oil Company. Morgan was succeeded in the Louisiana House by Rupert Peyton of Shreveport, who also served as an aide to Davis. On the other hand, Davis reached out to the Longites when he commuted the prison sentence imposed on former Louisiana State University president James Monroe Smith in the "Louisiana Hayride" scandals of the late 1930s. Like Davis, Smith was a native of Jackson Parish.
Long was seeking the lieutenant governorship on the Lewis Morgan "ticket" and led in the first primary, but he lost the runoff to J. Emile Verret of New Iberia, who was the president of the Iberia Parish School Board.
Davis kept his hand in show business, and set a record for absenteeism during his first term with trips to Hollywood to make Western "horse operas."
Davis was term-limited to a single non-consecutive term in office.
Davis' first wife, the former Alverna Adams, from a prominent Shreveport family, was first lady while he was governor. She died in 1967. He thereafter married Anna Carter Gordon, a member of the Chuck Wagon Gang gospel singers based in Nashville. She survived Davis.
Out of office, Davis resided primarily in Baton Rouge but made numerous singing appearances, particularly in churches throughout the United States.
Davis died on November 5, 2000 and is buried in the Davis Family Cemetery in Quitman, LA (in his native Jackson Parish county). He was aged 101 years and 55 days, which made him the longest-lived of all U.S. state governors at the time of his death. Davis held this record until March 18, 2011, when Albert Rosellini of Washington achieved a greater lifespan of 101 years, 56 days. Davis was posthumously inducted into the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame in Ferriday.
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