Jimmie Davis dies; Louisiana `singing governor' was 101

BATON ROUGE, La.--Jimmie Davis, the "singing governor" who drew on his popularity as a maker of hits such as "You Are My Sunshine" to win election twice to the state's top office, died yesterday, his former press secretary said. He was believed to be 101.

"He died at 4:40 a.m., peacefully in his sleep in his home at Baton Rouge," Ed Reed said.

Davis parlayed smooth talking and sweet singing into a political career, serving as a Democratic governor from 1944-48 and 1960-64.

He estimated that he wrote more than 400 songs, including "It Makes No Difference Now" and "Sweethearts or Strangers," and recorded at least 52 albums. "You Are My Sunshine," his first smash hit in the late '30s, became a standard.

Davis acknowledged in the past that he was uncertain of his own age, knowing only that he was born around the turn of the century.

Age had taken its toll on Davis in recent years, but he frequently mustered the strength to perform. He sang at his own 100th birthday celebration in Baton Rouge in September 1999. He said Gov. Sam Jones and Huey Long's brother Julius talked him into running for governor in 1943. Backers thought his popularity as a singer could help him end the crippling 15-year battle between the Long forces and their opponents.

He was remembered for pushing through legislation in his first term creating the state's first driver's licenses, and, in his second, for seeing the state through the school desegregation battles of the early 1960s.

He called five straight special legislative sessions to resist federal desegregation orders, and created a grant program to aid private-school pupils after the courts prevailed.

He said later that he was only doing what was best for the times.

"Everybody ran on the segregation ticket. You couldn't be elected without it. When desegregation came, we did it without having anybody killed. We didn't even have a fistfight."

A bid for a third try at the governorship fell short in 1971.

His show biz career at times interfered with his day job. He set a record for absenteeism during his first term as governor, in part because he spent part time in Hollywood making movies (among his films: "Louisiana," 1947, about a country boy who becomes a singer and then a governor).

Survivors include his wife, Anna Gordon Davis, and a son, Jim.