Sam Houston Jones (1897-1978) was born in Merryville, spent his youth in DeRidder, and became the only native of Beauregard Parish elected governor of Louisiana. He graduated from DeRidder High School in 1915, enrolled at Louisiana State University, and left college in 1917 to serve in the army during World War I, later retiring from the Army Reserve in 1957 with the rank of major. In 1919, while working for his father, Robert Jones, the Beauregard Parish Clerk of Court, he began studying law, passed the Louisiana bar in 1921 without a college degree, practiced law in DeRidder, and moved to Lake Charles in 1924. He later served as assistant prosecutor for the Southwest Region of Louisiana and was the lead prosecutor in the famous Double Hanging case in DeRidder in 1928. In a bitter campaign in 1940, he defeated Earl K. Long, brother of Huey Long, for the Louisiana governor's seat. As governor, he delivered Louisiana from 12 years of near dictatorship and restored respect for the state through measures that included competitive bidding on state contracts, a civil service system, eliminating the mandatory deduct system for state employees, introducing voting machines, ending annual registration for poll taxes as a requirement for voting, opening state records and books to public view, and stopping political control of state colleges. He is buried in Lake Charles, where Sam Houston Jones State Park is named in his honor.