Education
Tulane University.
Tulane University.
Coon resigned after less than two years in the state House to become mayor of Monroe upon the death at the age of thirty-seven of his predecessor, George Olan Breece (October 21, 1912 – November 6, 1949), a native of Kanawha, West Virginia. After his mayoral tenure, Coon was from 1956 to 1964 the Louisiana state fire marshal under Governors Earl Kemp Long and Jimmie Davis. Coon was the youngest child of the former Henrietta Henson (1865–1947) and Jacob Allen Coon (1858–1919) of the Okaloosa Community in Ouachita Parish.
Coon"s father died before Coon was a teenager.
Johnny Downs" adopted father and Mattie Coon"s previous husband was Malcolm Calvin Downs (1907–1953). Coon graduated in 1929 from Tulane University in New Orleans.
Coon died in Monroe at the age of eighty-five.
Coon had a stepson, the late John Harden Barnett Downs, a five-term at-large member of the Alexandria City Council for whom the Johnny Downs Sports Complex in Alexandria is named. He was a member of First Families of Mississippi, the Masonic lodge, and the Shriners. Coon was an honorary lifetime member of the Louisiana Firemen"s Association and the International Chiefs of Police.