‘Charismatic’ John Jay Hooker has died
Source: The Tennessean
John Jay Hooker, who was perhaps Nashville’s most recognizable and charismatic political figure, and one of its most controversial, died Sunday morning.
He was 85.
Mr. Hooker, who had been battling cancer since January 2015, died peacefully with family and friends at Alive Hospice in Nashville.
“John Jay Hooker was a man of big ideas, big dreams,” said former Congressman Bob Clement, whose father, Frank G. Clement, was governor of Tennessee for 10 years “and though he never held public office, he was always fighting for important causes.”
“Our family has lost a brilliant and remarkable member whose compassion for those less fortunate and efforts for all humanity will be long remembered,” said Henry Hooker, his brother. “His smile, charm, and love of people brightened our lives.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2016/01/24/charismatic-john-jay-hooker-has-died/79225098/
Frank Daniels III, 11:42 a.m. CST January 24, 2016
---------
Source: Associated Press
Larger-than-life Nashville politician Hooker dead at 85
BY TRAVIS LOLLER
Associated Press
NASHVILLE, TENN. - A family friend said larger-than-life Nashville political figure John Jay Hooker Jr., who spent his last days fighting to make physician-assisted suicide legal in Tennessee, died on Sunday at 85.
Political strategist Tom Ingram said he received a message from one of Hooker's daughters that Hooker had died in hospice. He had been suffering from metastatic melanoma.
Hooker had brilliant successes early in life as an attorney. Tapped in 1958 to prosecute the impeachment of a Chattanooga judge accused of accepting bribes from racketeers, he fell into the orbit of Robert Kennedy, who was investigating the Teamsters union. Hooker later worked as special counsel to Kennedy after he became U.S. attorney general, even living in Kennedy's house for a time.
Hooker was one of the original investors in Hospital Corporation of America, a chairman of STP Corp., part-owner and publisher of the Nashville Banner, and briefly chairman of wire service United Press International.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/article56351490.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
And a real Tennessean. He will be missed. 
"We need a Ray of Blanton Sunshine"?
http://gorecenter.mtsu.edu/education/Political_Jingles/Audio/BlantonJingleFullR60.mp3
