D-Day veteran and TikTok star ‘Papa Jake' Larson dies at 102
An animated speaker who charmed strangers young and old with his quick smile and generous hugs, the self-described country boy from Minnesota was 'cracking jokes til the end,' his granddaughter wrote in announcing his death.
Tributes to him quickly filled his 'Story Time with Papa Jake' TikTok account from across the United States, where he had been living in Lafayette, California. Towns around Normandy, still grateful to Allied forces who helped defeat the occupying Nazis in World War II, paid him homage too.
'Our beloved Papa Jake has passed away on July 17th at 102 years young,' granddaughter McKaela Larson posted on his social media accounts. 'He went peacefully.'
'As Papa would say, love you all the mostest,' she wrote.
Born Dec. 20, 1922, in Owatonna, Minnesota, Larson enlisted in the National Guard in 1938, lying about his age since he was only 15 at the time. In 1942, he was sent overseas and was stationed in Northern Ireland. He became an operations sergeant and assembled the planning books for the invasion of Normandy.
He was among the nearly 160,000 Allied troops who stormed the Normandy shore on D-Day, June 6, 1944, surviving machine-gun fire when he landed on Omaha Beach. He made it unhurt to the bluffs that overlook the beach, then studded with German gun emplacements that mowed down American soldiers.
'We are the lucky ones,' Larson told The Associated Press at the 81st anniversary of D-Day in June, speaking amid the immaculate rows of graves at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach.
'We are their family. We have the responsibility to honor these guys who gave us a chance to be alive.'
He went on to fight through the Battle of the Bulge, a grueling month-long fight in Belgium and Luxembourg that was one of the defining moments of the war and of Hitler's defeat. His service earned him a Bronze Star and a French Legion of Honor award.
In recent years, Larson made repeated trips to Normandy for D-Day commemorations — and at every stop, 'Papa Jake' was greeted by people asking for a selfie. In return, he offered up a big hug, to their greatest joy.
One memorable encounter came in 2023, when he came across Bill Gladden, a then-99-year-old British veteran who survived a glider landing on D-Day and a bullet that tore through his ankle.
'I want to give you a hug, thank you. I got tears in my eyes. We were meant to meet,' Larson told Gladden, as their hands, lined and spotted with age, clasped tightly. Gladden died the following year.
In his TikTok posts and interviews, Larson combined humorous anecdotes with somber reminders about the horrors of war.
Reflecting to AP on the three years he was in Europe, Larson said he is 'no hero.' Speaking in 2024, he also had a message to world leaders: 'Make peace not war.'
He often called himself 'the luckiest man in the world,' and expressed awe at all the attention he was getting. 'I'm just a country boy. Now I'm a star on TikTok,' he told AP in 2023. 'I'm a legend! I didn't plan this, it came about.'
Small-town museums and groups around Normandy that work to honor D-Day's heroes and fallen shared tributes online to Larson, one of their most loyal visitors.
'He was an exceptional witness and bearer of memory,' the Overlord Museum posted on Facebook.
'He came every year to the museum, with his smile, his humility and his tales that touched all generations. His stories will continue to live. Rest in peace Papa Jake,' it read.
'Thanks for everything.'
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The regime did it for potential propaganda purposes. The collector Skartsilakis has used photographs to find objects. 'It's sometimes astonishing to see that, even after 80 years, shell casings from the battle are still lying on a wall where I have a photo of soldiers positioned during the battle,' he shares. Tripalitakis examines a selection of original wartime photographs from his collection —some costing him around 300 euros. Underneath are displayed personal items such as buttons and belt buckles found in the islands' battlefields. Photograph by Demetrios Ioannou It should come as no surprise, then, that these photographs can fetch lofty sums. 'I've bought a single photograph on eBay for €300. Especially the ones showing paratroopers with full gear in the midst of battle are extremely expensive,' Tripalitakis shares. 'A paratrooper's full photo album, can go for as much as €5,000 and may contain 150–200 photographs.' Under Greek law, items from 1453 and earlier are considered antiquities and are automatically state property. Anything found that dates after 1453—the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans and the end of the Byzantine Empire—is not considered ancient and can be legally owned as collectibles. Weaponry and ammunition that are still functional must be officially registered with the Greek police. Small arms require a permit and must be deactivated. 'I handle that myself,' Tripalitakis says. 'I'm a reserve officer in the special forces, in the paratroopers, but I knew how to handle explosives like these long before the army." In total, Tripalitakis owns around 200 weapons, though not all of them are complete. Other items include uniforms, gas masks, field telephones, mess tins, motorcycle goggles, ID tags, cutlery sets, first aid kits, cooking pots, buttons, pocket watches, and unit insignia. Much like Schimkat's helmet, each item in a collection carries its own life story. 'We have found many personal belongings of soldiers, such as wedding rings with engraved initials, some of which we've traced back to their owners,' says Skartsilakis, who recently made a particularly rare discovery. 'I found three wooden crosses from graves at the Battle of Galatas. A local had them to support the roof of his stable.' From screws to barrels the entire island is dotted with repurposed WWII relics. Some became flower pots or water troughs. 'I've seen a raki still made from a German fuel barrel," Skalidakis laughs. Photograph by Demetrios Ioannou But don't mistake the ways they've been repurposed to mean they aren't valued. After all, many in Crete have family lore about ancestors who fought and died to stop the Nazis. 'You should know,' Tripalitakis concludes, 'that everyone has objects like these in their homes. Some people consider them family heirlooms and don't want to part with them.' 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