Gray Davis
Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is a retired American politician and attorney who served as the 37th Governor of California from 1999 to 2003. A member of the Democratic Party, only a few months into his second term, in 2003 Davis was recalled and removed from office, the second state governor successfully recalled in U.S. history. Prior to serving as governor, Davis was chief of staff to Governor Jerry Brown (1975–81), a California State Assemblyman (1983–87), California State Controller (1987–95) and the 44th Lieutenant Governor of California (1995–99). Davis holds a B.A. in history from Stanford University and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service as a Captain in the Vietnam War.
Jackson B. Davis
Davis was born on March 27, 1918 near Lecompte in south Rapides Parish, one of three children of Jesse Octo Davis (1893–1986) and the former Litha Pittman (1893–1961). Not long before Thanksgiving Day in 1961, his mother, who was then living in Baton Rouge, and her sister, Essie Pittman Linzay, and a third woman, were killed in a two-car crash at Pine Grove. Davis studied at Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville from 1932 to 1933, at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, from 1933 to 1934, and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge from 1934 to 1936. He obtained a master's degree from LSU in 1937 and his Bachelor of Laws in 1940 from Louisiana State University Law Center.