John Jay Hooker
Encyclopedia
John Jay Hooker, Jr. is a Nashville, Tennessee
attorney
, entrepreneur
, perennial candidate
and political gadfly.
and privilege in one of the Nashville area's more prominent families. His father, John Jay Hooker, Sr., was one of the Nashville area's best-known and most respected attorneys, as is his brother Henry Hooker, who became his law partner in the former firm of Hooker, Hooker, and Willis. Hooker is a direct descendant of William Blount
, who signed the Constitution of the United States and who was appointed by President George Washington
in 1790 to be the "Governor of all the lands south of the Ohio River". In 1796, Governor Blount was elected the president of the Constitutional Convention
of Tennessee.
, Hooker attended college at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee
. He then served two years in the United States Army
Judge Advocate General's Corps
as an investigator. Upon discharge from the service, Hooker attended Vanderbilt University
Law School
. He graduated and was admitted to the Tennessee bar
in 1957. He then practiced law with his father in the law firm of Hooker, Keeble, Dotson, and Harris, one of the most prominent law firms in Tennessee. In 1960, Hooker left his father's law firm to start a new law firm and one year later was joined by his brother Henry Hooker, and two years later by William R. Willis, forming the law firm of Hooker, Hooker, and Willis, which eventually became a ten-man law firm. This firm became the general counsel of the Nashville Tennessean
and several other businesses by the time Hooker ran for governor in 1966. Struck by the inequalities in the southern
society that confronted him at the time, he became identified as a young man with progressive
Democratic
politics. While practicing law, he also began a series of diverse business investments.
In 1958, Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement
asked Hooker and prominent Nashville attorney Jack Norman Sr. to become involved in the state's investigation of Raulston Schoolfield, an allegedly corrupt Chattanooga state judge. Based on the Norman/Hooker findings, the Tennessee House of Representatives
voted to impeach
Schoolfield. Norman and Hooker were then retained to prosecute Schoolfield before the Tennessee State Senate
, which convicted him on several counts. At the time, Robert F. Kennedy
was general counsel of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management
, which was investigating labor corruption. In this capacity, Kennedy launched an investigation of Raulston Schoolfield. Kennedy came to Tennessee and testified in the Schoolfield impeachment trial. Thereafter, he and Hooker became close friends and remained so until the time of Kennedy's death in 1968.
and its subsidiaries, WSM
radio and the Grand Ole Opry
country music
program. Hooker also was close friends with Amon Evans, whose family then owned and published the Nashville Tennessean, then as now the most prominent newspaper in Middle Tennessee
. Thereafter, Hooker convinced Evans to employ John Seigenthaler as the editor
of the newspaper. Seigenthaler likewise had an association with Robert F. Kennedy that emenated from the Schoolfield investigation and trial. Thereafter, Seigenthaler was a major political supporter of Robert Kennedy and of Hooker.
In January 1961, immediately upon the swearing in of Bobby Kennedy as Attorney General of the United States, Hooker was named special assistant to RFK, working on various projects for him during which time Mr. Hooker lived with Robert Kennedy and his family in his home in McLean, Virginia
.
With the support and backing of the Evans family and John Seigenthaler, Hooker decided to enter the 1966 Democratic primary
for governor of Tennessee. His opponent was Buford Ellington
, a former governor attempting a return to the office who had the strong backing of the incumbent
governor, Clement, and President
Lyndon Johnson, who was Ellington's close personal friend and who had appointed him to a prominent position at the Federal Emergency Management Agency
. Ellington was also strongly backed by the other Nashville newspaper, the Nashville Banner
. Supported by some of the more progressive members of the Nashville business community, and using innovative advertising such as sponsoring NASCAR
driver Buddy Baker
's racecar
, Hooker underwent a blistering counterattack which was mounted by Ellington's "Old Guard" supporters. Hooker ran fairly well in the urban
and rural
areas, but lost badly in the suburb
s, to which the Old Guard's support had largely moved in the post-World War II
era. Ellington went on to an easy victory in November, with no Republican opposition, the last time such a circumstance was to occur in Tennessee.
During this period, Hooker and Tish made a campaign appearance at a Nashville church attended by the very young Oprah Winfrey
and her family. Tish, as Oprah recounted later, took the time to speak to the young girl, and told her she was "pretty as a speckled pup." Many years later, Tish was invited to appear on Oprah's television show and Oprah acknowledged how much those kind words had meant to her.
During the next four years, Hooker divided his time between two major activities – investments and planning to run for governor again in 1970. Politically, he kept up his connection with Bobby Kennedy and other members of the Kennedy political family, and was greatly saddened when RFK was assassinated in 1968. By this time Hooker had many diversified investments including Whale Inc., and a chain of fried chicken
restaurants with country comedienne Minnie Pearl
and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
. His rationale for the chicken restaurants was that just as Pepsi
had long made a large amount of money as the primary competitor to Coca-Cola
, someone else stood to make a comparable fortune as the primary competitor to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Hooker was also intimately involved around the same time with the Frist family and others in the formation of what became the first major for-profit health care chain, the Hospital Corporation of America
.
Hooker won the 1970 Democratic nomination for governor of Tennessee over a host of competitors, most notably the candidate of the "Old Guard", Nashville attorney Stan Snodgrass, who had the endorsement of the Nashville Banner. In the past, the Democratic nomination would have assured him victory in November. But many things had changed in Tennessee in the four years since his loss to Ellington. For one, the Republican Party was benefitting greatly from the Southern strategy
of then-President Richard M. Nixon to reach out to rural and working-class urban Southern whites who were disturbed by desegregation
and other rapid social changes. Tennessee Republicans, only just over two years from failing to field a gubernatorial candidate, had even managed to organize the Tennessee House of Representatives
for the first (and only) time in the 20th century in 1969, and were not about to allow what appeared to them to be a golden opportunity to pass them by. In 1966, Howard Baker
had beaten Governor Frank Clement for the United States Senate
because the Democratic party was divided between the Clement/Ellington forces and the anti-Clement/Ellington forces, as best exemplified in the heated primary battle that year between Ellington and Hooker, and the absence of a gubernatorial nominee had in fact allowed Republicans to focus almost all of their energies on electing Baker to the Senate seat.
Events as well as people seemed to conspire against Hooker in the fall of 1970. The Republicans had staged a very hard-fought primary race of their own, but had come out of it largely united behind the candidacy of Memphis dentist Dr. Winfield Dunn
, former chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party. Many of Snodgrass' erstwhile supporters, including the Nashville Banner, endorsed Dunn. At the same time, the Securities and Exchange Commission had in 1969 announced an investigation into Minnie Pearl's Chicken, over time as a consequence of the investigation the price the stock had declined from a high of $40 a share to approximately 50 cents a share.
Simultaneously, Democratic Senator Albert Gore, Sr.
was running an equally hard-fought and ultimately unsuccessful campaign for a fourth term against Chattanooga Congressman William E. Brock. The friendly relationship both Gore and Hooker shared with the Kennedy family became an issue, especially in light of Ted Kennedy
's involvement in the Chappaquiddick incident the previous year. Republicans and "Old Guard" detractors alike pilloried the two, leading to a Republican sweep and for the first time in the post-Reconstruction era that the Republicans held the Tennessee governorship and both United States Senate seats (although, curiously, they lost control of the state House of Representatives and never regained in the ensuing decades).
Hooker was never convicted of any criminal wrongdoing in the SEC/Minnie Pearl Chicken case. Nonetheless, the SEC investigation, which lasted three years, caused the company virtually to liquidate, although a few outlets continued to function into the 1980s. Hooker still claims that the SEC investigation was unjustified and totally politically inspired by the Nixon Administration, which wanted to defeat Albert Gore Sr. and Hooker because they were anti-war candidates. Hooker also claimed that the Nixon political "machine" challenged Hooker and Gore as part of its "Southern strategy".
for the nomination. (Sasser was well-known by Tennessee Democratic insiders, however, as the manager of Albert Gore, Sr.'s, last, unsuccessful campaign six years earlier. Sasser defeated Brock in November and went on to serve three terms in the Senate.)
In 1979, he arranged for the sale of The Tennessean newspaper to Gannett, which had earlier purchased the Banner but preferred to own morning rather than evening papers. At the same time, his own investment group purchased the Banner from Gannett (the two papers were linked by a joint operating agreement) and Hooker became publisher of the very paper that had so tormented him only nine years earlier. In retrospect, he has called this perhaps the greatest single moment of his life. However, Hooker sold his portion of the Banner in 1982 and became chairman for a period of United Press International
, the historical but faltering competitor in the wire-service news business to the Associated Press
.
Hooker's fortunes seemed to ebb and flow in the 1980s. At one point, he became rather prosperous again. He promoted a new fast food chain, named for himself, which sold hamburgers from small, drive-by only buildings, operating this venture from 1984 to 1986 before selling it, for three million dollars. One of these outlets was built in the Nashville area and several in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. He remained friends with many prominent persons, however, including former heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali
and became friends with H. Ross Perot. Hooker always claimed to have been the first and primary counselor in Perot's decision to run for President of the United States
in 1992.
Hooker began to file to run for various political offices including governor, Senator, Congressman, and others, for the purpose of acquiring the legal standing to sue all of these persons running for the office for taking campaign contributions from "out of state" contributors, which according to his legal theories were both illegal and unconstitutional and Hooker continues to bring lawsuits in that regard down through the present. In 1995 he even sued President Bill Clinton
, as well as all of the other presidential candidates, for accepting certain campaign contributions, which according to his theory were unconstitutional. He sued the Tennessee Supreme Court, saying that their elections under the "Modified Missouri Plan
" were unconstitutional, eventually forcing them to recuse themselves from their own case and require the empanelment of a special State Supreme Court to hear the charges. (This panel dismissed Hooker's claims.) Although his later campaigns were basically efforts to draw attention to the amount of money which came into Tennessee politics from "out of state" and its alleged corrupting influence, he unexpectedly received the 1998 Democratic nomination for governor. No other prominent Democrat had filed to opposed incumbent Republican governor Don Sundquist
, and Hooker defeated a field of other "token" candidates as well as the supposedly "serious" candidate with union backing, Mark Whitaker, who was the selected "sacrificial lamb" of the party leadership.
Hooker won the nomination based on tremendous name recognition among older Democrats, who are in Tennessee generally the most reliable primary voters. He ran the best in the rural areas and with urban blacks, who had always provided him with a core support group. While not formally disavowing him, the regular Democratic Party organization did almost nothing to promote his candidacy, and as Hooker had disavowed the formal fundraising process as unethical and immoral. Hooker received about 30% of the vote in the November general election. At this time Governor Sundquist had a 72% approval rating. Hooker remains a political activist, running for Congress in 2002 and again suing all his opponents, and then for Chancery Court judge in 2004 as an Independent against Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman and sued her for taking campaign contributions from lawyers who practice in her court which lawyers attended fundraisers held by her where, she according to Hooker, gave them food and drink prohibited by Article X, Section 3 of the Tennessee Constitution.
In 2006 Hooker filed to run for the Democratic nomination for both governor of Tennessee and United States Senator. Despite refusing to raise or spend any money in these efforts, Hooker nonetheless finished third in the senatorial primary http://tennessee.gov/sos/election/results/2006-08/DemUss.pdf and second in the gubernatorial primary http://tennessee.gov/sos/election/results/2006-08/GovernorDem.pdf held on August 3.
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, perennial candidate
Perennial candidate
A perennial candidate is one who frequently runs for public office with a record of success that is infrequent, if existent at all. Perennial candidates are often either members of minority political parties or have political opinions that are not mainstream. They may run without any serious hope...
and political gadfly.
Early life
John Jay Hooker was born to relative wealthWealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
and privilege in one of the Nashville area's more prominent families. His father, John Jay Hooker, Sr., was one of the Nashville area's best-known and most respected attorneys, as is his brother Henry Hooker, who became his law partner in the former firm of Hooker, Hooker, and Willis. Hooker is a direct descendant of William Blount
William Blount
William Blount, was a United States statesman. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention for North Carolina, the first and only governor of the Southwest Territory, and Democratic-Republican Senator from Tennessee . He played a major role in establishing the state of Tennessee. He was the...
, who signed the Constitution of the United States and who was appointed by President George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
in 1790 to be the "Governor of all the lands south of the Ohio River". In 1796, Governor Blount was elected the president of the Constitutional Convention
Constitutional convention (political meeting)
A constitutional convention is now a gathering for the purpose of writing a new constitution or revising an existing constitution. A general constitutional convention is called to create the first constitution of a political unit or to entirely replace an existing constitution...
of Tennessee.
Legal career
After finishing high school at Nashville's Montgomery Bell AcademyMontgomery Bell Academy
Montgomery Bell Academy is a preparatory day school for boys in grades 7 through 12 in Nashville, Tennessee.The school ideal is "Gentleman, Scholar, Athlete." Montgomery Bell Academy is noted for a large number of National Merit and other scholarship winners...
, Hooker attended college at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee
Sewanee, Tennessee
Sewanee is an unincorporated locality in Franklin County, Tennessee, United States, treated by the U.S. Census as a census-designated place . The population was 2,361 at the 2000 census...
. He then served two years in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
Judge Advocate General's Corps
Judge Advocate General's Corps
Judge Advocate General's Corps, also known as JAG or JAG Corps, refers to the legal branch or specialty of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, and Navy. Officers serving in the JAG Corps are typically called Judge Advocates. The Marine Corps and Coast Guard do not maintain separate JAG Corps...
as an investigator. Upon discharge from the service, Hooker attended Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
Law School
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
. He graduated and was admitted to the Tennessee bar
Bar (law)
Bar in a legal context has three possible meanings: the division of a courtroom between its working and public areas; the process of qualifying to practice law; and the legal profession.-Courtroom division:...
in 1957. He then practiced law with his father in the law firm of Hooker, Keeble, Dotson, and Harris, one of the most prominent law firms in Tennessee. In 1960, Hooker left his father's law firm to start a new law firm and one year later was joined by his brother Henry Hooker, and two years later by William R. Willis, forming the law firm of Hooker, Hooker, and Willis, which eventually became a ten-man law firm. This firm became the general counsel of the Nashville Tennessean
The Tennessean
The Tennessean is the principal daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky....
and several other businesses by the time Hooker ran for governor in 1966. Struck by the inequalities in the southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
society that confronted him at the time, he became identified as a young man with progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
politics. While practicing law, he also began a series of diverse business investments.
In 1958, Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement
Frank G. Clement
Frank Goad Clement served as Governor of Tennessee from 1953 to 1959, and again from 1963 to 1967.-Early life:...
asked Hooker and prominent Nashville attorney Jack Norman Sr. to become involved in the state's investigation of Raulston Schoolfield, an allegedly corrupt Chattanooga state judge. Based on the Norman/Hooker findings, the Tennessee House of Representatives
Tennessee House of Representatives
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional requirements:...
voted to impeach
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
Schoolfield. Norman and Hooker were then retained to prosecute Schoolfield before the Tennessee State Senate
Tennessee Senate
The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the Tennessee state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly.The Tennessee Senate, according to the state constitution of 1870, is composed of 33 members, one-third the size of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Senators...
, which convicted him on several counts. At the time, Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
was general counsel of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management
United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management
The United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management was a select committee created by the United States Senate on January 30, 1957, and dissolved on March 31, 1960...
, which was investigating labor corruption. In this capacity, Kennedy launched an investigation of Raulston Schoolfield. Kennedy came to Tennessee and testified in the Schoolfield impeachment trial. Thereafter, he and Hooker became close friends and remained so until the time of Kennedy's death in 1968.
Political career
In 1959, Hooker married the former Eugenia "Tish" Fort, a member of another socially-prominent Nashville family. They had three children, Dara, Kendall, and, Blount, who was named after his ancestor Governor Blount. The Fort family were co-founders along with other families of the former National Life and Accident Insurance CompanyNational Life and Accident Insurance Company
The National Life and Accident Insurance Company is a former life insurance company which was based in Nashville, Tennessee.National Life and Accident began in 1900 as the National Sick and Accident Association, a mutual company...
and its subsidiaries, WSM
WSM (AM)
WSM is the callsign of a 50,000 watt AM radio station located in Nashville, Tennessee. Operating at 650 kHz, its clear channel signal can reach much of North America and various countries, especially late at night...
radio and the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
program. Hooker also was close friends with Amon Evans, whose family then owned and published the Nashville Tennessean, then as now the most prominent newspaper in Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee....
. Thereafter, Hooker convinced Evans to employ John Seigenthaler as the editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of the newspaper. Seigenthaler likewise had an association with Robert F. Kennedy that emenated from the Schoolfield investigation and trial. Thereafter, Seigenthaler was a major political supporter of Robert Kennedy and of Hooker.
In January 1961, immediately upon the swearing in of Bobby Kennedy as Attorney General of the United States, Hooker was named special assistant to RFK, working on various projects for him during which time Mr. Hooker lived with Robert Kennedy and his family in his home in McLean, Virginia
McLean, Virginia
McLean is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. The community had a total population of 48,115 as of the 2010 census....
.
With the support and backing of the Evans family and John Seigenthaler, Hooker decided to enter the 1966 Democratic primary
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
for governor of Tennessee. His opponent was Buford Ellington
Buford Ellington
Earl Buford Ellington , a native of Mississippi, was the 42nd Governor of Tennessee from 1959 to 1963 and again from 1967 until 1971....
, a former governor attempting a return to the office who had the strong backing of the incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
governor, Clement, and President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Lyndon Johnson, who was Ellington's close personal friend and who had appointed him to a prominent position at the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...
. Ellington was also strongly backed by the other Nashville newspaper, the Nashville Banner
Nashville Banner
The Nashville Banner is a defunct daily newspaper of Nashville, Tennessee, United States, which published from April 10, 1876 until February 20, 1998...
. Supported by some of the more progressive members of the Nashville business community, and using innovative advertising such as sponsoring NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
driver Buddy Baker
Buddy Baker
Elzie Wylie Baker, Jr. , nicknamed "Leadfoot" or more famously Buddy, is a former American NASCAR racecar driver.-Early life:...
's racecar
Auto racing
Auto racing is a motorsport involving the racing of cars for competition. It is one of the world's most watched televised sports.-The beginning of racing:...
, Hooker underwent a blistering counterattack which was mounted by Ellington's "Old Guard" supporters. Hooker ran fairly well in the urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
and rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
areas, but lost badly in the suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s, to which the Old Guard's support had largely moved in the post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
era. Ellington went on to an easy victory in November, with no Republican opposition, the last time such a circumstance was to occur in Tennessee.
During this period, Hooker and Tish made a campaign appearance at a Nashville church attended by the very young Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
and her family. Tish, as Oprah recounted later, took the time to speak to the young girl, and told her she was "pretty as a speckled pup." Many years later, Tish was invited to appear on Oprah's television show and Oprah acknowledged how much those kind words had meant to her.
During the next four years, Hooker divided his time between two major activities – investments and planning to run for governor again in 1970. Politically, he kept up his connection with Bobby Kennedy and other members of the Kennedy political family, and was greatly saddened when RFK was assassinated in 1968. By this time Hooker had many diversified investments including Whale Inc., and a chain of fried chicken
Fried chicken
Fried chicken is a dish consisting of chicken pieces usually from broiler chickens which have been floured or battered and then pan fried, deep fried, or pressure fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or crust to the exterior...
restaurants with country comedienne Minnie Pearl
Minnie Pearl
Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...
and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson – January 27, 1972) was an African-American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel"...
. His rationale for the chicken restaurants was that just as Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
had long made a large amount of money as the primary competitor to Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
, someone else stood to make a comparable fortune as the primary competitor to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Hooker was also intimately involved around the same time with the Frist family and others in the formation of what became the first major for-profit health care chain, the Hospital Corporation of America
Hospital Corporation of America
Hospital Corporation of America is the largest private operator of health care facilities in the world, It is based in Nashville, Tennessee and is widely considered to be the single largest factor in making that city a hotspot for healthcare enterprise.-History:The founders of HCA include Jack C....
.
Hooker won the 1970 Democratic nomination for governor of Tennessee over a host of competitors, most notably the candidate of the "Old Guard", Nashville attorney Stan Snodgrass, who had the endorsement of the Nashville Banner. In the past, the Democratic nomination would have assured him victory in November. But many things had changed in Tennessee in the four years since his loss to Ellington. For one, the Republican Party was benefitting greatly from the Southern strategy
Southern strategy
In American politics, the Southern strategy refers to the Republican Party strategy of winning elections in Southern states by exploiting anti-African American racism and fears of lawlessness among Southern white voters and appealing to fears of growing federal power in social and economic matters...
of then-President Richard M. Nixon to reach out to rural and working-class urban Southern whites who were disturbed by desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
and other rapid social changes. Tennessee Republicans, only just over two years from failing to field a gubernatorial candidate, had even managed to organize the Tennessee House of Representatives
Tennessee House of Representatives
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional requirements:...
for the first (and only) time in the 20th century in 1969, and were not about to allow what appeared to them to be a golden opportunity to pass them by. In 1966, Howard Baker
Howard Baker
Howard Henry Baker, Jr. is a former Senate Majority Leader, Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee, White House Chief of Staff, and a former United States Ambassador to Japan.Known in Washington, D.C...
had beaten Governor Frank Clement for the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
because the Democratic party was divided between the Clement/Ellington forces and the anti-Clement/Ellington forces, as best exemplified in the heated primary battle that year between Ellington and Hooker, and the absence of a gubernatorial nominee had in fact allowed Republicans to focus almost all of their energies on electing Baker to the Senate seat.
Events as well as people seemed to conspire against Hooker in the fall of 1970. The Republicans had staged a very hard-fought primary race of their own, but had come out of it largely united behind the candidacy of Memphis dentist Dr. Winfield Dunn
Winfield Dunn
Bryant Winfield Culberson Dunn was the 43rd Governor of Tennessee, from 1971 to 1975.-Biography:Dunn was born in Meridian, Mississippi. He graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1950 with a B.B.A., and from the University of Tennessee Medical Units in Memphis in 1955 with a D.D.S. Dunn...
, former chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party. Many of Snodgrass' erstwhile supporters, including the Nashville Banner, endorsed Dunn. At the same time, the Securities and Exchange Commission had in 1969 announced an investigation into Minnie Pearl's Chicken, over time as a consequence of the investigation the price the stock had declined from a high of $40 a share to approximately 50 cents a share.
Simultaneously, Democratic Senator Albert Gore, Sr.
Albert Gore, Sr.
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Sr. was an American politician, serving as a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator for the Democratic Party from Tennessee....
was running an equally hard-fought and ultimately unsuccessful campaign for a fourth term against Chattanooga Congressman William E. Brock. The friendly relationship both Gore and Hooker shared with the Kennedy family became an issue, especially in light of Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
's involvement in the Chappaquiddick incident the previous year. Republicans and "Old Guard" detractors alike pilloried the two, leading to a Republican sweep and for the first time in the post-Reconstruction era that the Republicans held the Tennessee governorship and both United States Senate seats (although, curiously, they lost control of the state House of Representatives and never regained in the ensuing decades).
Hooker was never convicted of any criminal wrongdoing in the SEC/Minnie Pearl Chicken case. Nonetheless, the SEC investigation, which lasted three years, caused the company virtually to liquidate, although a few outlets continued to function into the 1980s. Hooker still claims that the SEC investigation was unjustified and totally politically inspired by the Nixon Administration, which wanted to defeat Albert Gore Sr. and Hooker because they were anti-war candidates. Hooker also claimed that the Nixon political "machine" challenged Hooker and Gore as part of its "Southern strategy".
Later life
Hooker served as chairman of the STP Corporation from 1973 to 1976. In 1976 he entered the Democratic Primary for Brock's U.S. Senate seat and was at first perhaps favored to win the nomination, but was defeated by the previously-little-known Jim SasserJim Sasser
James Ralph "Jim" Sasser is an American politician and attorney. A Democrat, Sasser served three terms as a United States Senator from Tennessee and was Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee...
for the nomination. (Sasser was well-known by Tennessee Democratic insiders, however, as the manager of Albert Gore, Sr.'s, last, unsuccessful campaign six years earlier. Sasser defeated Brock in November and went on to serve three terms in the Senate.)
In 1979, he arranged for the sale of The Tennessean newspaper to Gannett, which had earlier purchased the Banner but preferred to own morning rather than evening papers. At the same time, his own investment group purchased the Banner from Gannett (the two papers were linked by a joint operating agreement) and Hooker became publisher of the very paper that had so tormented him only nine years earlier. In retrospect, he has called this perhaps the greatest single moment of his life. However, Hooker sold his portion of the Banner in 1982 and became chairman for a period of United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
, the historical but faltering competitor in the wire-service news business to the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
.
Hooker's fortunes seemed to ebb and flow in the 1980s. At one point, he became rather prosperous again. He promoted a new fast food chain, named for himself, which sold hamburgers from small, drive-by only buildings, operating this venture from 1984 to 1986 before selling it, for three million dollars. One of these outlets was built in the Nashville area and several in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. He remained friends with many prominent persons, however, including former heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
and became friends with H. Ross Perot. Hooker always claimed to have been the first and primary counselor in Perot's decision to run for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
in 1992.
Hooker began to file to run for various political offices including governor, Senator, Congressman, and others, for the purpose of acquiring the legal standing to sue all of these persons running for the office for taking campaign contributions from "out of state" contributors, which according to his legal theories were both illegal and unconstitutional and Hooker continues to bring lawsuits in that regard down through the present. In 1995 he even sued President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, as well as all of the other presidential candidates, for accepting certain campaign contributions, which according to his theory were unconstitutional. He sued the Tennessee Supreme Court, saying that their elections under the "Modified Missouri Plan
Tennessee Plan
The Tennessee Plan is a system of judicial appointment used in Tennessee. The system attempts to limit the influence of partisan politics over the state's judiciary...
" were unconstitutional, eventually forcing them to recuse themselves from their own case and require the empanelment of a special State Supreme Court to hear the charges. (This panel dismissed Hooker's claims.) Although his later campaigns were basically efforts to draw attention to the amount of money which came into Tennessee politics from "out of state" and its alleged corrupting influence, he unexpectedly received the 1998 Democratic nomination for governor. No other prominent Democrat had filed to opposed incumbent Republican governor Don Sundquist
Don Sundquist
Donald Kenneth Sundquist is a former governor and congressman from Tennessee. A Republican, he served as the 47th Governor of Tennessee from 1995 to 2003...
, and Hooker defeated a field of other "token" candidates as well as the supposedly "serious" candidate with union backing, Mark Whitaker, who was the selected "sacrificial lamb" of the party leadership.
Hooker won the nomination based on tremendous name recognition among older Democrats, who are in Tennessee generally the most reliable primary voters. He ran the best in the rural areas and with urban blacks, who had always provided him with a core support group. While not formally disavowing him, the regular Democratic Party organization did almost nothing to promote his candidacy, and as Hooker had disavowed the formal fundraising process as unethical and immoral. Hooker received about 30% of the vote in the November general election. At this time Governor Sundquist had a 72% approval rating. Hooker remains a political activist, running for Congress in 2002 and again suing all his opponents, and then for Chancery Court judge in 2004 as an Independent against Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman and sued her for taking campaign contributions from lawyers who practice in her court which lawyers attended fundraisers held by her where, she according to Hooker, gave them food and drink prohibited by Article X, Section 3 of the Tennessee Constitution.
In 2006 Hooker filed to run for the Democratic nomination for both governor of Tennessee and United States Senator. Despite refusing to raise or spend any money in these efforts, Hooker nonetheless finished third in the senatorial primary http://tennessee.gov/sos/election/results/2006-08/DemUss.pdf and second in the gubernatorial primary http://tennessee.gov/sos/election/results/2006-08/GovernorDem.pdf held on August 3.
External links
- John Jay Hooker Center for Election & Campaign Finance Reform
- Short Hooker biography from Middle Tennessee State University site
- Tish Hooker on Oprah
- John Jay Hooker: The Tennessee icon sits down to talk with Joe, Interview from 2003
- Craig Boerner, Kurtz moves to disbar Hooker, The City Paper, November 22, 2004