John Louis Hackney Obituary

With heavy hearts, we announce the death of John Louis Hackney (Edmond, Oklahoma), born in Cherokee, Oklahoma, who passed away on May 6, 2018. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family.

At 6'4", his height gave him some stature that his young age could not. From 1962-64, John served in the US Air Force. Kay and John dreamed of the exotic places they might be stationed; they ended up at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma. In the fall of 1964, John opened his medical practice in Edmond, OK, and the couple started their family with the arrival of their son, Jonathan Louis. The practice and the family continued to grow with Jennifer Kay's arrival in 1967. In 1969, the happy couple built their dream home and resided in it for the rest of their days. That year also, John and some colleagues built Edmond Medical Clinic and he remained there until 1992, when he moved his private practice to Edmond Regional Medical Building. He retired from private practice in 2006, and took a full-time position as the Medical Director of University Health Services at the University of Central Oklahoma (which he had done part-time since the 1970s). Later, he took a full-time position at an urgent care clinic where he continued until 2013. Despite working 40 hours a week after leaving private practice, he considered himself retired because he no longer was on-call. Dr. Hackney was an "old school" doctor, a rara avis these days. He made house calls. He took care of hurt and sick kids in the neighborhood on the spot and without charge. He always did rounds with all of his patients in hospitals (even after the invention of "hospitalists"). He was a family doctor who delivered many babies, and when that middle of the night call had been a delivery, he would always return home singing. With his patients, he was patient, kind, knowledgeable, compassionate, and generous with his time, information and care. He was these things with his family as well. He took us on innumerable family vacations, played millions of games of Scrabble and Parcheesi and Yahtzee with us. Jon and Jennifer loved it when Kay would have a "girls' night" with her friends so they could spend time eating pizza and going to movies with their Daddy. The children have happy memories of being taken on outings after school on John's day off, to places like JB Nimbles for ice cream. Although John was a man of few words, he was a very active member of the community. He was an active member of the First Christian Church in Edmond since moving to the town. He served as a medical consultant and physician for Nova Center and EARC for over 25 years. He and friends like Betty Ayers, Bill Barrett and Don Courts were active in the DPC. He and Kay were both avid tennis players and active in several bridge, supper and other social clubs. At one point, he and Kay had earned some Masterpoints in the American Contract Bridge League. He loved to travel and had been to places like the former USSR, Cuba during Castro's regime, Israel, and multiple countries in Europe, and most of the states in the USA. He loved to read fiction and non-fiction, and the newspaper (being both), and to watch every single OU sport. He was known by many and loved by all. John died at the age of 81 on May 6, 2018 after a brief and mysterious illness. John was preceded in death by his wife, Kay, in December 2016; his parents, Louis and Hazel; and his parents-in-law, Monk and Hallie Guthrie. Survivors include: his loving son, Jon; Jon's wife, Melanie; and John's granddaughters, Hannah and Halleigh; John's devoted daughter, Jennifer and her husband Tim Kline; John's adoring sister, Jeanne and her husband, Larry Parson; and John's dog, Precious. He is also survived by many nieces and nephews, cousins, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and patients who will all miss him dearly. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. at First Christian Church in Edmond on Friday, May 11, 2018, followed by interment at Memorial Park Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family (all of whom are terrible with plants) would deeply appreciate a donation being made to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA), which provides care and services to individuals and families of people with Alzheimer's disease (http://www.alzfdn.org.