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Memorial Planned For John Jay Hooker

Posted at 8:49 AM, Jan 28, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-28 09:49:01-05

A public memorial has been planned to honor well-known Nashville attorney and politician John Jay Hooker.  

Hooker died Sunday at the age of 85 after a long, hard battle with melanoma.

A family visitation and memorial has been set for February 6 in the Grand Reading Room at the downtown Nashville Public Library. 

The son of a prominent Nashville attorney, John Jay Hooker Sr., Hooker Jr. received his law degree from Vanderbilt in the 1950s. 

He served for a few years under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy as a special assistant. Then in 1970, he won the democratic nomination in the Tennessee gubernatorial race.

Though he lost, Hooker never left politics or the public eye.

At the end of his life he focused on the "right to die" movement, pushing for legislation that would allow those with terminal illnesses like him to die peacefully and by their own accord.

"We all have something to live for, but only a few have something to die for," he said.

Even though the cancer was spreading through his body, even though he had months to live, he continued to fight. 

Multiple friends and politicians released statements Sunday after Hooker's passing.