Every night before bed, I sing my kids this song: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my ...

Robert Mann’s 10th book, “You Are My Sunshine: Jimmie Davis & the Biography of a Song,” wraps musicology and social and political history into 161 concise pages. Straightforward though ...

Said Rice, “I wrote ‘You Are my Sunshine’ in 1937. Where I got the idea for it, a girl over in South Carolina wrote me this long letter—it was long about seventeen pages.

The official state song is “ Give Me Louisiana,” written in 1970 by Doralice Fontane, and not only former Gov. Jimmie Davis’ version of “ You Are My Sunshine, ” as many thought.

Ray Charles's rendition of "You Are My Sunshine" helped disassociate it from its connection to segregation. The song's journey to becoming Louisiana's state song is detailed in Mann's book.

Robert Mann’s 10th book, “You Are My Sunshine: Jimmie Davis & the Biography of a Song,” wraps musicology and social and political history into 161 concise pages.