SHREVEPORT – The singing governor and the song that lifted him to music and political stardom.
Two-time Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis rode the wave of “You Are My Sunshine” to music and then political notoriety.
Louisiana middle schoolers learn in their Louisiana History class that Davis composed the iconic song, but the origins of the song are actually not crystal clear.
Renowned Louisiana political historian Robert Mann tackles the complicated legacy of Davis and of the song in a new biography “You Are My Sunshine: Jimmie Davis and the Biography of a Song.”
Mann will be on LSUS’s campus April 2 to discuss the book and to sign copies. The 11 a.m. event will be hosted on the third floor of the Noel Memorial Library.
Hard cover books can be purchased for $29.95 with e-books available on the Leaf e-reader app for $19.95. The book was published by LSU Press.
Part of Mann’s research is based on materials from the Northwest Louisiana Archives, which has detailed records and recordings of Davis’ personal life in Shreveport and his music career starting with KWKH’s Saturday Night Roundup in the 1930s.
“Davis sang on the Saturday Night Roundup, which was hosted in the Municipal Auditorium and broadcast on the radio long before the Louisiana Hayride came into existence,” said Laura McLemore, head archivist of the Northwest Louisiana Archives. “Robert Mann primarily used the Robert and Laurie Gentry Collection, a very large collection on the music of this region, especially the Louisiana Hayride.
“He also used parts of our Bob Hill collection and interviews from our oral history collection, which covers a wide range of subjects and topics.”
Davis lived most of his adult life in Shreveport when he wasn’t serving as Louisiana’s governor (1944-48 and 1960-64).
He came to the area as a history teacher at Dodd College for Girls and stayed for the musical scene and industry connections, which included the Louisiana Hayride.
Davis served as Shreveport’s public safety commissioner from 1938 and then as Louisiana’s public service commissioner in 1942 before winning the governor’s seat for the first time in 1944.
Davis (1939) was the third to publicly record “You Are My Sunshine,” and his version helped shoot the song into national popularity in which artists like Bing Crosby recorded their own versions in the next few years.
The song appeared in Gene Autry’s 1941 movie “Back in the Saddle.”
The tune had been recorded by 350 artists in 30 different languages by the year 2000, earning the song a Grammy Hall of Fame award and the No. 73 country song of all-time in CMT’s 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music.
The Northwest Louisiana Archives has a Jimmie Davis exhibit that includes Davis’ version of the song as well as earlier recording by The Pine Ridge Boys and The Rice Brothers earlier in 1939.
The exhibit also features press clippings and other Jimmie Davis items.
Davis won his second term as Louisiana governor in 1960 by pledging to fight desegregation, and the exhibit also includes press clippings from The Shreveport Sun, the city’s black-owned newspaper which includes local and national stories from the 1950s and 1960s.
The biography is Mann’s 10th book on Louisiana and political history as he’s arguably the most revered source in that field.