Sam H. Jones

Sam Houston Jones (July 15, 1897 – February 7, 1978) was the reform Democratic governor of Louisiana from 1940 to 1944. He defeated the legendary Earl Kemp Long in the 1940 Democratic primary. Long turned the tables on Jones and soundly defeated him in the 1948 party primary.

Early life

Sam Jones was born in Merryville in Beauregard Parish and was reared in nearby DeRidder. He served in the United States Army during World War I. Much of his service was spent at nearby Camp Beauregard. After the war, he studied law at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He practiced law in DeRidder before moving to Lake Charles, the seat of Calcasieu Parish in 1924, where he practiced law and served as assistant district attorney for nine years. Jones married the former Louise Gambrell Boyer (1902–1996), and they had two children, Robert Gambrell "Bob" Jones and Carolyn Jelks Jones.

Election of 1940

In August 1939, Jones was approached by members of the political faction opposed to the policies of the late Huey Pierce Long, Jr. to run for governor in 1940 against Huey's brother, Earl Long. Though initially reluctant, Jones agreed, and ran on a platform promising a return to honest efficient government after the corruption and excesses of the Long years. He particularly emphasized "the scandals" involving Huey Long's successor as governor, Richard W. Leche. Earl Long led in the primary round of voting, but with support from defeated third-place candidate and disgruntled former Long supporter James A. Noe, Jones won a close victory in the runoff election and became governor. Jones received 284,437 (51.7 percent) to Long's 265,403 (48.3 percent). Although Noe and Long quarreled in the 1940 election, they ran—unsuccessfully—as a "team" for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, in the 1959 Democratic primary. Eliminated in the primary was future U.S. Representative James Hobson "Jimmy" Morrison of Hammond in the "Florida Parishes" east of Baton Rouge.

Jones as governor

As governor, Jones tried to eliminate the power of the Longite political machine by reducing the number of state employees, instituting competitive bidding for state contracts, eliminating the deduct system of mandatory campaign contributions by state employees, and enacting new civil service standards. Jones also worked to increase international trade through the Louisiana ports on the Gulf of Mexico.

Jones faced the dilemma of having to resort to the heavy-handed tactics of the Longites in order to enact his reform program, and his critics and even some supporters saw this process as tainted. Jones fired more state employees and hired more of his own supporters than even Huey Long. In order to obtain the support of former Longite Noe and his followers, Jones had to promise him a proportion of patronage jobs in a practice which directly contradicted Jones's campaign promises. Noe's later defection from Jones's reform camp led to the stalling of many of Jones's reform proposals in the state legislature. Jones was barred from succeeding himself as governor, and therefore (See Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1944.) was succeeded in 1944 by another anti-Long candidate, Jimmie Houston Davis. Ironically, Jones and Davis shared the middle name "Houston."

Jones supported highway beautification and preservation of plants and wild life. His administration hired the Louisiana botanist and naturalist Caroline Dormon of Natchitoches Parish as a consultant for the Louisiana Highway Department.

After the governorship

Jones attempted a gubernatorial comeback in the 1947–1948 election cycle, but he was most disappointed. Earl Long came out of political retirement and polled 432,528 votes (65.9 percent) to Jones' 223,971 ballots (34.1 percent). Jones hence returned to Lake Charles to practice law, but he remained a politically prominent member of the anti-Long faction throughout the 1950s. In 1964, Jones endorsed the Republican presidential nominee, Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, who won Louisiana's ten electoral votes. Jones said that he would remain a Democrat so that he could vote in pivotal Louisiana Democratic primaries—this was before the adoption of the Louisiana jungle primary—but that overall he was disillusioned with his ancestral party.

Jones' son, Bob Jones of Lake Charles, served as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives (1968–1972) and the state Senate (1972–1976) and, like his father, was considered a political reformer. In 1975, Jones ran in the jungle primary for governor. He polled 292,220 votes (24.3 percent), a considerable portion from Republicans, but he lost to Democratic incumbent Edwin Washington Edwards, who had 750,107 (62.4 percent). Another candidate, Secretary of State Wade O. Martin, Jr., drew 146,368 votes (12.2 percent). Later, both Robert Jones and Wade Martin became Republicans. Bob Jones and his son, Sam Houston Jones, II, named for his grandfather, are Lake Charles stockbrokers.

Governor and Mrs. Jones are buried in Prien Memorial Park Cemetery in Lake Charles. They were Methodist.

References

*Conrad, Glenn R. (1988) "A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography." Louisiana Historical Association.
*Davis, Edwin Adams (1961) "Louisiana: The Pelican State." Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. LCCN 59:9008.
*Hathorn, Billy (1980), "The Republican Party in Louisiana, 1920–1980," Northwestern State University at Natchitoches thesis
*Jeansonne, Glen, "Sam Houston Jones and the Revolution of 1940." "Red River Valley Historical Review" 4 (1979).
*Reeves, Miriam G. (1998), "The Governors of Louisiana." Gretna: Pelican Publishing.
*Sanson, Jerry Purvis. "Sam Jones, Jimmie Noe, and the Reform Alliance, 1940–1942" "Louisiana History" 27 (1986)

External links

* [http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/403/Default.aspx State of Louisiana - Biography]
* [http://www.la-cemeteries.com/Governors/Jones,%20Sam%20Houston/Jones,%20Sam%20Houston.shtml Cemetery Memorial] by La-Cemeteries
* [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/jones8.html#RL315H99O Political Graveyard]