Ben Walter Hooper was born on October 13, 1870 in Newport, Tennessee. After graduating from Carson-Newman College in 1890, Hooper studied law under Judge Horace Nelson Cate and was admitted to the bar in 1894. He served in the Tennessee State House of Representatives from 1893-1897 and was captain of Company C, Sixth U.S. Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War. In 1906, he was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney for the East Tennessee District, a post he kept until 1910. He was a two-term governor of Tennessee (1910 and 1912), losing in 1914. Hooper was the only Republican governor elected in Tennessee between 1880 and 1920. He lost two non-consecutive races for a U.S. Senate seat in 1916 and 1934 before returning to his law practice in Newport. In 1943, he published Elections in Tennessee. He died of pneumonia on April 15, 1957. His autobiography, The Unwanted Boy,was published posthumously in 1963.