"Papa Jake," D-Day veteran and beloved TikTok star, 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 Hope Township, 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 grew up during the Great Depression and, at times, he had no electricity or running water, he told CBS Minnesota. Larson said he lied about his age when he was 15 years old to enlist in the National Guard in 1938.
In 1942, he was sent overseas and was stationed in Northern Ireland. He became operations sergeant and assembled the planning books for the invasion of Normandy.
Larson learned to type with a typewriter in school, and when he was sent to France, he knew about typewriters as much as he knew about guns.
"It changed my life. It raised me right up to the top," he told CBS Minnesota in an interview prior to his death. "Every person that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, came through these fingers. These fingers I'm showing you right now."
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. Larson outlived many soldiers who were with him that day.
"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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