For gadfly Hooker, cancer is ‘a jolt’ but also opportunity

In this photo taken Aug. 19, 2015, John Jay Hooker sits in his retirement home apartment in Nashville, Tenn. "In this life on the final analysis, you have to grade your own papers. I’m a fighter by nature," said Hooker. "Sometimes I’ve regarded my losses like running for governor as my service. I felt I did the right thing and put the right issues on the table." (AP Photo/David Goldman) In this photo taken Aug. 19, 2015, John Jay Hooker sits in his retirement home apartment in Nashville, Tenn. "In this life on the final analysis, you have to grade your own papers. I’m a fighter by nature," said Hooker. "Sometimes I’ve regarded my losses like running for governor as my service. I felt I did the right thing and put the right issues on the table." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

By Associated Press November 15, 2015 7 min read

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – The ups and downs of John Jay Hooker are the stuff of Nashville legend.

Friend of Muhammad Ali, socialite, lawyer who moved in the Kennedys’ circle, Hooker also lost businesses, millions of dollars and high-profile political campaigns. In his later years, he has earned the moniker gadfly, mostly for losing battles, and seemed to be fading into irrelevance.

Then he got cancer and everything changed.

Being told he was dying breathed new life into the 85-year-old Hooker as he rallied to the cause of physician-assisted suicide. Now he calls it “the most important thing I’ve ever done.”

“It’s transformed my life in the sense that when I first got the news that I had only six months to live, it was a jolt,” he said. “But now that I have sort of shifted gears I feel it’s an honor to have the credentials to get into this fight.”