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Posted On: September 27th 2026, 02:55 pm
More than forty years ago, on September 2, 1986, Jan’s mother Sara Margaret Brannon Hooks died.
Jan’s father Wyatt said the family was close and they all shared a funny bone.
“When the kids were growing up, we spent a lot of time laughing, really enjoying each other,” he told the Fort Myers, FL News-Press in 1992.
Sara “Sadie” Brannon was born in 1923 and grew up in Cedartown, GA. After graduating from high school, she attended Young Harris College and transferred to LaGrange College, southwest of Atlanta and not too far from home. She was studying to be a music teacher. The picture of her comes from the 1945 LaGrange yearbook. It says she was in a couple sororities, a member of the Chapel Choir, vice-president of the Curtain Raisers and of Alpha Psi Omega. Also, she was a member of the Chapel Choir, the Concert Choir, and the Sextet. Plus, she was in the Dance Club.
How she met Wyatt Hooks is a question. But she did and fell in love with the World War Two veteran. They got married and settled down in Decatur, an Atlanta suburb. Wyatt worked for Sears and Sadie taught school until the kids came along. Jan was the youngest of three, a baby sister to two rowdy big brothers.
As time wore on, it became clear Jan was just a little different than the other kids, and more performance -geared like her mom.
“It was hard to discipline her because she’d go into dialect and making funny faces. I never dreamed she’d make money making people laugh,” Sadie said to the Atlanta Journal in August 1981.
In the same Journal interview, Jan talks about the character she created Bonnie and Terry Turner for “Tush” who spoofed television evangelists. Tammy Jean was saccharine sweet on camera and all bite off. Jan admitted Tammy “is a great deal like my mother.”
Sadie was Jan’s biggest fan. She didn’t get to see Jan go live from New York. But for the rest of her life, Jan remembered one of their last conversations, which would help her through some difficult years ahead.
“Just before my mother died she told me, ‘It’s your time. Destiny waits.’ I continue to get inspiration from her.”
#janhooks #janhooksforever @pchsmuseum #cedartownga #saturdaynightlive
Jan’s father Wyatt said the family was close and they all shared a funny bone.
“When the kids were growing up, we spent a lot of time laughing, really enjoying each other,” he told the Fort Myers, FL News-Press in 1992.
Sara “Sadie” Brannon was born in 1923 and grew up in Cedartown, GA. After graduating from high school, she attended Young Harris College and transferred to LaGrange College, southwest of Atlanta and not too far from home. She was studying to be a music teacher. The picture of her comes from the 1945 LaGrange yearbook. It says she was in a couple sororities, a member of the Chapel Choir, vice-president of the Curtain Raisers and of Alpha Psi Omega. Also, she was a member of the Chapel Choir, the Concert Choir, and the Sextet. Plus, she was in the Dance Club.
How she met Wyatt Hooks is a question. But she did and fell in love with the World War Two veteran. They got married and settled down in Decatur, an Atlanta suburb. Wyatt worked for Sears and Sadie taught school until the kids came along. Jan was the youngest of three, a baby sister to two rowdy big brothers.
As time wore on, it became clear Jan was just a little different than the other kids, and more performance -geared like her mom.
“It was hard to discipline her because she’d go into dialect and making funny faces. I never dreamed she’d make money making people laugh,” Sadie said to the Atlanta Journal in August 1981.
In the same Journal interview, Jan talks about the character she created Bonnie and Terry Turner for “Tush” who spoofed television evangelists. Tammy Jean was saccharine sweet on camera and all bite off. Jan admitted Tammy “is a great deal like my mother.”
Sadie was Jan’s biggest fan. She didn’t get to see Jan go live from New York. But for the rest of her life, Jan remembered one of their last conversations, which would help her through some difficult years ahead.
“Just before my mother died she told me, ‘It’s your time. Destiny waits.’ I continue to get inspiration from her.”
#janhooks #janhooksforever @pchsmuseum #cedartownga #saturdaynightlive
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