Jacksonville, Texas - John Paul Hauk, longtime Jacksonville resident and downtown shopkeeper, passed away peacefully at Hospice of East Texas on August 15 after a battle with cancer.

John Paul was born at Jacksonville's Newburn Sanitarium on June 1, 1941, to Willis Carlyle Hauk and Gladys Carrell Hauk. After growing up with his large, loving family in the Bullard area, he graduated from Bullard High School in 1959.

John met and married his wife of 60 years, Norma Ann Cooper, in Tyler in 1965. He went on to work in the insurance business as they bought and renovated houses in Tyler, Dallas, Bullard, and eventually Jacksonville.

John Paul and Ann welcomed only son Hunter in 1977, moving to Jacksonville five years later.

In the early '90s, John struck out from the insurance business and opened his dream shop, a sports-and-music resale store called Replay, which has since changed locations twice and is now in downtown Jacksonville.

Since 2020, John has published two volumes of stories about growing up behind the Pine Curtain — Slidin' Home and Backslidin' Home.

He was preceded in death by his mother and father, sister Mary Dell Gallop, sister Sue Chapman Hauk, and brother Charles Hauk. He is survived by his wife, Norma Ann Hauk, his son, Hunter Hauk, his older brother, Willis (Bud) Hauk, and his younger siblings Ace Gallop, Brenda (Sissie) Hauk Miller, and Becky Brownell.

A visitation and gathering will be held at Boren-Conner Bullard on Thursday, August 21, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to either County Roads Rescue or The Crisis Center of Cherokee County.