Thorn enlisted in the [[United States Marine Corps]], with service from 1960 to 1964. Thereafter, he obtained his undergraduate degree in Journalism from the [[University of Louisiana at Monroe]], then known as Northeast Louisiana State College, and his master's in journalism from [[Louisiana State University]], where he was later a [[professor]]. He subsequently obtained a [[Ph.D.]] in higher education administration from [[Florida State University]] in [[Tallahassee]], [[Florida]].<ref name=jdthorn>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/clarionledger/obituary.aspx?n=jesse-dale-thorn&pid=170968700#sthash.g1JbouVI.dpuf|title=Jesse Dale Thorn|publisher=''The Baton Rouge Advocate''|accessdate=July 3, 2020}}</ref>
Thorn's [[newspaper]] career began at the ''The [[Monroe News-Star]],'' then known as ''The Monroe Morning World,'' at which he reported on [[government]], [[politics]], and the state capital. He subsequently was an editor of ''The Shreveport Times'' in [[Shreveport]]. Both publications were then owned by the family of John Dunbrack Ewing (1892-1952). He was named the press secretary to [[U.S. Representative]] and [[Governor]] [[Edwin Edwards]]. He continued as the press spokesman well into Edwards' second term as governor and in that capacity became acquainted with many of the leading journalists in the state.<ref name=jdthorn/>
Thorn once observed that the southern press in the 1960s rarely reported on crimes against [[African American]]s: "The metro press really didn't cover that type of thing." A case in point was the burning death of Frank Morris, who operated a shoe repair shop in Ferriday in Concordia Parish, an unsolved racially motivated killing.<ref>Matthew Barnidge, LSU student media, Small-town paper calls attention to unsolved civil-rights killings," ''Lafourche Parish Daily Comet,'' December 25, 2009.</ref>