Jimmie Davis
Jimmie Davis | |
---|---|
47th Governor of Louisiana | |
In office May 10, 1960 – May 12, 1964 | |
Lieutenant | Taddy Aycock |
Preceded by | Earl Long |
Succeeded by | John McKeithen |
In office May 9, 1944 – May 11, 1948 | |
Lieutenant | J. Emile Verret |
Preceded by | Sam H. Jones |
Succeeded by | Earl Long |
Personal details | |
Born | James Houston Davis September 11, 1899 Jackson Parish, Louisiana, U.S. |
Died | November 5, 2000 Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. | (aged 101)
Resting place | Jimmie Davis Tabernacle Cemetery, Quitman, Louisiana |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Alvern Adams (died 1967) Anna Gordon (m. 1969) |
Children | 1 |
Education | Louisiana Christian University (BA) Louisiana State University (MA) |
Profession | Singer, songwriter, former educator, politician |
James Houston Davis (September 11, 1899 – November 5, 2000) was an American singer, songwriter, and politician. After achieving fame for releasing both sacred and popular songs, Davis served as governor of Louisiana from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964. As Governor, he was an opponent of efforts to desegregate Louisiana.[1]
Davis was a nationally popular
Early life and career
Childhood and birth date confusion
Davis was not sure of his date of birth; according to The New York Times, "Various newspaper and magazine articles over the last 70 years said he was born in 1899, 1901, 1902 or 1903. He told The New York Times several years ago that his sharecropper parents could never recall just when he was born – he was, after all, one of 11 children – and that he had not had the slightest idea when it really was."[2][3] The birth date listed on his Country Music Hall of Fame plaque is September 11, 1904.[4]
Education
Davis graduated from Beech Springs High School and from Soule Business College, in New Orleans.[5] His 1927 master's thesis, which examines the intelligence levels of different races, is titled Comparative Intelligence of Whites, Blacks and Mulattoes.[6]
Career beginnings
During the late 1920s, Davis taught history (and, unofficially, yodeling) for a year at the former Dodd College for Girls in Shreveport. The college president, Monroe E. Dodd, who was also the pastor of First Baptist Church of Shreveport and a radio preacher, invited Davis to serve on the faculty.[7]
Musical career
Davis became a commercially successful singer of rural music before he entered politics. His early work was in the style of country music singer
In 1999, "
Davis often performed during his campaign stops when running for governor of Louisiana. After being elected in 1944, he became known as the "singing governor." While governor, he had a No. 1 hit single in 1945 with "There's a New Moon Over My Shoulder".[8] Davis recorded for the Victor Talking Machine Company, and Decca Records for decades and released more than 40 albums.[citation needed]
A long-time
A number of his songs were used as part of motion picture soundtracks. Davis appeared in half a dozen films, including one starring
Davis was also a close acquaintance of the country singer-songwriter Hank Williams, with whom he co-wrote the top-10 hit[10] "(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle" in 1951, supposedly on a fishing day they spent together.
Singles
Year | Single | US Country |
---|---|---|
1934 | "Nobody's Darling but Mine" | — |
1937 | "Nobody's Darling but Mine" Jimmie Davis With Charles Mitchell And His Texan | — |
1938 | "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland" | — |
"There's a Gold Mine in the Sky"[11] | — | |
1939 | "Two More Years (and I’ll Be Free)"[12] | 1 |
"It Makes No Difference Now"[13] | 1 | |
"The Last Trip Of The Old Ship"[14] | 2 | |
"Memories"[15] | 5 | |
1940 | "I’d Love to Call You My Sweetheart"[16] | 1 |
"Baby Your Mother" | 2 | |
"You're As Welcome As The Flowers In May"[17] | 6 | |
"You Are My Sunshine" | — | |
1941 | "I'm Sorry Now"[18] | 3 |
1942 | "I've Got My Heart On My Sleeve" | 3 |
"You'll Be Sorry" | 4 | |
"Sweethearts Or Strangers"[19] | 6 | |
"I Loved You Once" | 6 | |
"Don't You Cry Over Me" | 6 | |
"The End Of The World" | 7 | |
"What More Can I Say" | 8 | |
"I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes" | 10 | |
1943 | "Columbus Stockade Blues" | 2 |
"Where Is My Boy Tonight" | 7 | |
"I'm Knocking At Your Door Again" | 7 | |
"I Dreamed Of An Old Love Affair" | 8 | |
"A Sinner's Prayer" | 13 | |
1944 | "Is It Too Late Now" | 3 |
"There's a Chill on the Hill Tonight" | 4 | |
1945 | "There's a New Moon Over My Shoulder" | 1 |
1946 | "Grievin' My Heart Out for You" | 4 |
1947 | "Bang Bang" | 4 |
1951 | "(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle" | 9 |
1962 | "Where the Old Red River Flows" | 15 |
Political career
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2018) |
Davis was elected in 1938 as Shreveport's public safety commissioner. At the time, Shreveport had the
First term as governor (1944–1948)
Davis was elected governor as a Democrat in 1944. Among those eliminated in the primary were
In the
Davis pleased white liberals with his appointments to high positions of two of the leaders of the impeachment effort against Huey Long. He named Cecil Morgan of Shreveport to the Louisiana Civil Service Commission. Morgan was succeeded in the Louisiana House by Rupert Peyton of Shreveport, who also served as an aide to Davis. In addition, Davis retained the anti-Long Ralph Norman Bauer of St. Mary Parish as House speaker, a selection made originally in 1940 by Sam Jones.[20]
Earl Long was seeking the
Davis kept his hand in show business, and set a record for absenteeism during his first term. He made numerous trips to
Under the term limit provision of the state constitution then in effect, Davis was limited to a single non-consecutive term in office.[citation needed]
The election of 1959–1960
When he became a candidate for a second term in 1959–60, Davis had been out of office for nearly a dozen years. In a later study of this election, three Louisiana State University political scientists described him by the following:
Davis has all the external attributes of a "man of the people", but his serious political connections seem to be with the [parish-seat] elite and its allies, particularly the major industrial combinations of the state. He is in many respects a toned-down version of the old-style southern politician who could spellbound the mass of voters into supporting him regardless of the effects of his programs on their welfare. ... Davis creates the perfect image of a man to be trusted and one whose intense calm is calculated to bring rational balance into the political life of the state.[22]
Davis was running at a time when African Americans in the civil rights movement were seeking social justice and restoration of their constitutional rights. In 1954 the US Supreme Court had ruled in
Davis ran second in the primary to
It has been reported that had General
Second term (1960–1964)
As part of his support of segregation, Davis initiated passage of state legislation to create the Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission, which operated from 1960 to 1967. It "espoused states rights, anti-communist and segregationist ideas, with a particular focus on maintaining the status quo in race relations. It was closely allied with the Louisiana Joint Legislative Committee on Un-American Activities."[24] It was modeled after Mississippi's commission, established in 1956 to resist integration. Davis tapped Frank Voelker Jr., City Attorney of Lake Providence, to chair the newly established Commission. It was given unusual[clarification needed] powers to investigate state citizens, and used its authority to exert economic pressure to suppress civil rights activists. Voelker left the commission in 1963 to run for governor but placed poorly in the primary; he withdrew and supported other candidates.[25]
Political legacy
Davis established a State Retirement System and funding of more than $100 million in public improvements, while leaving the state with a $38 million surplus after his first term.[26]
Earl Long once remarked that Davis was so relaxed and low-key that one could not "wake up Jimmie Davis with an earthquake".[27]
Public relations specialist Gus Weill, who worked in the Davis campaign in 1959, wrote a biography of the former governor in 1977, entitled You Are My Sunshine, based on Davis' best-known song.[28]
Personal life
Davis's first wife, the former Alvern Adams, the daughter of a physician in Shreveport, was the first lady while he was governor during both terms. A little over a year after Alvern's death in 1967, Davis married the widowed Anna Gordon (February 15, 1917 – March 5, 2004) in a small ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia on December 4, 1968 (The Tennessean). Anna was born Effie Juanita Carter and had been a founding member of the gospel quartet The Chuck Wagon Gang along with her father, a sister and a brother. She had been given the stage name "Anna" during the mid-1930s. Davis was a longtime fan of the group, who were gospel music pioneers with more than 36 million records sold in forty years of affiliation with Columbia Records.
Davis died on November 5, 2000. He had suffered a fall in his home some ten months earlier and may have had a stroke in his last days. He is interred alongside his first wife at the Jimmie Davis Tabernacle Cemetery in his native Beech Springs community near Quitman. Jim Davis was cremated.[30][31]
Davis was aged 101 years and 55 days,[30] 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, dying 206 days later.
Honors
The Jimmie Davis Tabernacle is located near Weston in Jackson Parish. The tabernacle hosts occasional gospel singing. At the site is a replica of the Davis homestead (c. 1900) and of the Peckerwood Hill Store, an old general store that served the community.
Davis was inducted into the
The Davis archives of papers and photographs is housed in the "You Are My Sunshine" Collection of the Linus A. Sims Memorial Library at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.[33]
Filmography
Davis had several appearances in movies (usually or always as himself), including:
- 1942: Strictly in the Groove
- 1942: Riding Through Nevada
- 1943: Frontier Fury
- 1944: Cyclone Prairie Rangers
- 1947: Louisiana
- 1949: Mississippi Rhythm
- 1950: Square Dance Katy
See also
- List of governors of Louisiana
- Jim Flynn, a writer encouraged when Davis signed his first song writing contract
References
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
- ^ "Jimmie Davis, Louisiana's Singing Governor, Is Dead". The New York Times. November 6, 2000. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
- LA Times. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
- ^ "Jimmie Davis Country Music Hall of Fame Plaque. Presented - Lot #21201 - Heritage Auctions". Retrieved July 17, 2016.
- ^ Patrick Kavanaugh and Barbara Kavanaugh, Devotions from the World of Music (2000), p. 326.
- ^ "Comparative intelligence of whites, blacks and mulattoes". Louisiana State University Library Catalog. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
- ^ "Jimmie Davis, country singer and former two-term governor of Louisiana, was born 123 years ago today". Frank Beacham's Journal. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
- ^ ISBN 0-85112-726-6.
- The Shreveport Times. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
- ^ "Articles". Hpcisp.com. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
- ^ "78 Record: Jimmie Davis - There's A Gold Mine In The Sky (1938)". 45worlds.com. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
- ^ "The Billboard December 30, 1939 p146". worldradiohistory.com. December 30, 1939. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
- ^ "The Billboard August 26, 1939 p129". worldradiohistory.com. August 26, 1939. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
- ^ "The Billboard November 25, 1939 p68". worldradiohistory.com. November 25, 1939. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
- ^ "The Billboard May 27, 1939 p69". worldradiohistory.com. May 27, 1939. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
- ^ "The Billboard March 30, 1940 p69". worldradiohistory.com. March 30, 1940. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
- ^ "The Billboard September 28, 1940 p70". worldradiohistory.com. September 28, 1940. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
- ISSN 0950-4125.
- ^ "The Billboard February 28, 1942 p60". worldradiohistory.com. February 28, 1942. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
- ^ "Smith, James Monroe". A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography (Louisiana Historical Association). Archived from the original on July 16, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2011.
- ^ Mathur, Monika (June 23, 2009). "A look at odd behavior by US governors". Associated Press. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
- Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UniversityStudies, 1963, pg. 40
- ^ "The Campaign: George's General". Content.time.com. October 11, 1968. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
- ^ "Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission" Archived December 5, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University; Sources: Adam Fairclough. Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1995.
- ^ Havard, Heberle, and Howard, The Louisiana Election of 1960, pg. 99
- ^ "Louisiana Secretary of State". Archived from the original on August 12, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
- ^ James Carville (May 8, 2012). "Carville: Wake up Democrats; you could lose". Cnn.com. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
- ISBN 0882896601(0-88289-660-1)
- ^ Source: Historic marker, Eglin House in Shreveport
- ^ a b ""Sunshine" singer Jimmie Davis dead at 101". Mtv.com. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
- ^ "James William Davis obituary". Monroe News Star. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
- ^ "Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame". Cityofwinnfield.com. Archived from the original on July 3, 2009. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
- ^ Davis Collection at Southeastern, Selu.edu, (retrieved 2012-05-06).
Sources
- Toru Mitsui (1998). "Jimmie Davis." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 136.
- Kevin S. Fontenot, "You Can't Fight a Song: Country Music in Jimmie Davis' Gubernatorial Campaigns," Journal of Country Music (2007).
External links
- Jimmie Davis at IMDb
- State of Louisiana Biography
- Cemetery Memorial by La-Cemeteries
- Listen to Jimmie singing "She's a Real Hum Dinger"
- Jimmie Davis recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
- at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
- Jimmie Davis Collection and Jimmie Davis Photo Collection at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.
- Southern Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame and Museum