Mann presents LCU with copy of Gov. Jimmie Davis book 

Photo by Karen Carter: (from left) Michael Wynne, local historian and friend of the late Gov. Jimmie Davis, LSU Prof. Emeritus Robert Mann, and LCU Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Henry Robertson. Mann presents Robertson with one of the first copies of his book “You Are My Sunshine” in front of the historical marker on LCU campus commemorating the life of Davis, who was a student at LCU.

 

Retired LSU Prof. Emeritus Robert Mann visited Louisiana Christian University to present one of the first copies of his latest book,   You Are My Sunshine: Jimmie Davis and the Biography of a Song (LSU Press February 2025) to the LCU Norton Memorial Library.

Mann is the author of 10 books on U.S. and Louisiana political history. He was a senior aide to U.S. senators Russell Long and John Breaux and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.

He served on the faculty of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication for 18 years before retiring in 2024.

At the center of this story is Jimmie Davis, a 1924 graduate of Louisiana College which went on to become Louisiana Christian University.  Davis sang on campus and played his guitar in the streets of Pineville and Alexandria for funds to pay for his education.

He went on to become a country music superstar with the hit song “You Are My Sunshine,” a song covered by an impressive array of artists to date. Mann found that in 1940, Davis became the third artist to record “Sunshine,” after he bought it.

As “You Are My Sunshine” grew in popularity, so did its link to Davis, who entered politics and became the ‘singing governor’ for two non-consecutive terms as governor, 1944-1948 and 1960-1964.  In 1977, the Louisiana Legislature made “You Are My Sunshine” the state song.

Davis spent four years at Louisiana College, graduated, and remains one of the most famous of its graduates now 101 years after he took classes in Alexandria Hall, which still stands as the main building on the now suburban campus in Pineville.

LSU Press praised Mann’s new book, “this is more than the story of a simple song; it’s a biography of a cultural icon, enduring and ubiquitous as sunshine itself.”

 

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Media Release     |    January 29, 2024     |     Pineville, Louisiana
Contact: Dr. Elizabeth B. Clarke, Director of University Communications | Elizabeth.clarke@lcuniversity.edu