D-Day veteran “Papa Jake” Larson, who survived German gunfire in the June 1944 Normandy landings and went on to garner 1.2 million followers on TikTok late in life by sharing stories to commemorate the Second World War and his fallen comrades, has died 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 till the end”, his granddaughter wrote while announcing his death.
Tributes to the veteran quickly filled his Story Time With Papa Jake TikTok account from across the US, where he had been living in Lafayette, California.
Towns around Normandy, still grateful to Allied forces who helped defeat the occupying Nazis in the Second World War, paid homage to him too.
“Our beloved Papa Jake has passed away on July 17 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 on December 20 1922 in Owatonna, Minnesota, Mr Larson enlisted in the National Guard in 1938, lying about his age as he was only 15 at the time.
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.
Mr Larson 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 cliffs that overlook the beach, then studded with German gun emplacements that mowed down American soldiers.
“We are the lucky ones,” Mr Larson told The Associated Press (AP) at the 81st anniversary of D-Day in June.
“We are their family. We have the responsibility to honour these guys who gave us a chance to be alive.”
Mr Larson went on to fight through the Battle of the Bulge, a gruelling 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 Honour award.
In recent years, Mr 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 big hugs.
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,” Mr Larson told Mr Gladden, their hands clasped tightly. Mr Gladden died the following year.
In his TikTok posts and interviews, Mr Larson combined humorous anecdotes with sombre reminders about the horrors of war.
Reflecting to AP on the three years he was in Europe, Mr Larson said he was “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 honour D-Day’s veterans and fallen shared tributes online to Mr 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.”
