Downs, who has two sisters, is the son of the late C. H. "Sammy" Downs of Alexandria who served in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature and was a confidant of GovernorsEarl Kemp Long and John McKeithen. His mother, the former Alice Daigre, subsequently Alice Downs and then Alice Thomas, was a sister of the Alexandria consulting engineer Louis Jacob Daigre, Jr. Sammy Downs is buried at Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville. Alice Daigre Downs Thomas, who died nine years after her first husband, from whom she was divorced, is interred at the Henderson James Cemetery in rural Hot Wells in Rapides Parish. Downs' uncle, J. Earl Downs, was the public safety commissioner in Shreveport prior to 1963, where he served alongside Mayors James C. Gardner and Clyde Fant, He was unseated in the 1962 Democratic primary by George W. D'Artois.
Legal career
Like his father and brother, Downs is a Democrat and a graduate of the Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge. Before his election as DA, Jam Downs had been an assistant district attorney. He is known for his interest in conservation, hunting, and enforcement of game laws. He was born in Cheneyville but resides with his wife, the former Maureen Stewart, in a restored farmhouse near Lecompte, also in Rapides Parish. "Jam" Downs is not related to the late John Harden Barnett Downs, known as Johnny Downs, a five-term member of the Alexandria City Council and the namesake of the Johnny Downs Sports Complex at 271 Vandenburg Drive in Alexandria. At least three candidates have announced that they will run in the November 4, 2014 nonpartisan blanket primary to choose a successor to Downs, who customarily ran without an opponent. One was State RepresentativeChris Hazel, a Republican from Ball and a former assistant DA under Downs. Democrat Chris Roy, Jr., a former state representative and the brother of Jacques Roy, the mayor of Alexandria, has also announced for the position. Phillip Terrell, a former city judge in Pineville with decades of legal experience, was the third candidate. Ultimately, Terrell defeated Hazel in a close runoff election on December 6 and will succeed Downs in January 2015.
