When John Paul Hooker was born on 10 May 1891, in Beaufort, North Carolina, United States, his father, Washington Taylor Hooker, was 37 and his mother, Emma Pauline Thompson, was 33. He married Bessie Mae Gower on 12 February 1913, in Beaufort, North Carolina, United States. He died on 19 November 1953, in Bethel, Pitt, North Carolina, United States, at the age of 62, and was buried in Bethel, Cleveland, North Carolina, United States.