John R. Thistlethwaite

Thistlethwaite died the morning of Saturday, April 6, 1996, at Opelousas General Hospital, still a resident of Opelousas. Religious services were held at United Methodist Church, Opelousas, on April 9, conducted by the Rev. Ted Standley, and he was buried in the town's Bellevue Memorial Park Cemetery. He was a member of the Boston Club of New Orleans, the board of regent of the Louisiana Universities, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1973, a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Tulane University, a former member of Opelousas City Planning Commission, and a former president of the Louisiana Press Association from 1959-60. He was a recipient of the Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year Award and the Sertoma Service to Mankind Award.

The Daily World was sold to Worrel Newspapers Inc. in 1972. The New York Times Company acquired eight daily papers, including the TimesDaily, from Worrell in 1982. Gannett Company acquired the Daily World from the Times Company in 2000.

After 1941, during World War II, Rigby Owen served as the World's editor while Thistlethwaite was a Marine aviator who attained the rank of Captain flying the fast and effective F4U Corsair in the South Pacific. In the early years of the war the Corsair was largely deployed with land based Marine squadrons, but also functioned less frequently as a carrier fighter for the Marines on smaller escort carriers in later years of the war. Thistlethwaite resumed his editor and publisher duties on his return from the war.

The first edition of the Daily World was printed on December 24, 1939 at 226 W. Landry St. in downtown Opelousas. In October 1940, nine months after printing its first edition, Daily World printed a statement of ownership listing John Thistlethwaite as the primary publisher of the newspaper and noted eight original primary stock holders from Louisiana. These included their publishing company World News Incorporated, John Thistlethwaite, his Uncle Hugh, his mother Charlotte, and his partner D. Andrepont; the primary mortgagees included Mergenthaler Linotype, the leading system of the era for casting metal type in lines.

Jim Fitzgibbons served as the newspaper's original managing editor, supporting the advertising efforts of the paper, and managing the paper's business concerns. Fitzgibbons, of Monahans, Texas, had gained recognition for the sale of his newspaper, the Monahans Express, one of the first newspapers in America to use photo-offset printing. It was his experience in this innovative printing method that caused Daily World publishers to ask him to join their staff. Burton Grindstaff, of Hugo, Oklahoma, served as the newspaper's first editor, where he managed the news department and wrote a daily comment column. John's mother, Charlotte Frere Dubuisson, served originally as society editor. She was a college graduate, a former Washington teacher, and twenty year resident of Opelousas. Bill Lawless, staff photographer, had studied chemical engineering at Tulane University for two years from 1937-8, an education that would help prepare him for the challenges of the photo offset printing process.

John R. Thistlethwaite Jr. (July 16, 1918 – April 6, 1996) was an American journalist who founded the Daily World of Opelousas, Louisiana on December 24, 1939, the first American small town daily newspaper to use offset and photo-offset printing. Ducote “Duke” Andrepont was the newspaper's cofounder.

John R. Thistlethwaite Jr. was born into what would become a family of five children on July 16, 1918 in Washington, Louisiana to John Richmond Thistlethwaite Sr., and Charlotte Frere Thistlethwaite. Thistlewaite's father died during the depression in 1934. Thistlethwaite attended Tulane University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism in the Spring of 1939. During his years at Tulane, he was editor of the Tulane Jambalaya university yearbook and on the editorial staff of the school's student newspaper, the Tulane Hullabaloo.