D-Day veteran ″Papa Jake″ Larson, who survived German gunfire on Normandy’s bluffs in 1944 after which garnered 1.2 million followers on TikTok late in life by sharing tales to commemorate World Warfare II and his fallen comrades, has died at 102, his household confirmed to CBS Information on Sunday.
An animated speaker who charmed strangers younger and outdated together with his fast smile and beneficiant hugs, the self-described nation boy from Hope Township, Minnesota, was “cracking jokes til the top,” his granddaughter wrote on social media, asserting his dying.
“Each day with him was a blessing. He acquired to see each of my youngsters graduate highschool, he completed a lot,” Larson’s oldest grandson, Mike Larson, mentioned in a telephone name. “The outpouring of assist is unbelievable. We’ve got had individuals from all all over the world attain out to us. It is actually, actually superb.”
Tributes to him shortly crammed his “Story Time with Papa Jake” TikTok account from throughout the USA, the place he had been dwelling in Lafayette, California. Cities round Normandy, nonetheless grateful to Allied forces who helped defeat the occupying Nazis in World Warfare II, paid him homage too.
Eric Risberg / AP
“Our beloved Papa Jake has handed away on July seventeenth at 102 years younger,” granddaughter McKaela Larson posted on his social media accounts. “He went peacefully.”
“As Papa would say, love you all of the mostest,” she wrote.
Born Dec. 20, 1922, in Owatonna, Minnesota, Larson grew up in the course of the Nice Melancholy and, at occasions, he had no electrical energy or operating water, he advised CBS Minnesota. Larson mentioned he lied about his age when he was 15 years outdated to enlist within the Nationwide Guard in 1938.
In 1942, he was despatched abroad and was stationed in Northern Eire. He turned operations sergeant and assembled the planning books for the invasion of Normandy.
Larson discovered to sort with a typewriter at school, and when he was despatched to France, he knew about typewriters as a lot as he knew about weapons.
“It modified my life. It raised me proper as much as the highest,” he advised CBS Minnesota in an interview previous to his dying. “Each person who landed on Omaha Seashore on D-Day, got here by these fingers. These fingers I am exhibiting you proper now.”
Thomas Padilla / AP 
He was among the many almost 160,000 Allied troops who stormed the Normandy shore on D-Day, June 6, 1944, surviving machine-gun hearth when he landed on Omaha Seashore. He made it unharmed to the bluffs that overlook the seaside, then studded with German gun emplacements that mowed down American troopers. Larson outlived many troopers who have been with him that day.
“We’re the fortunate ones,” Larson advised The Related Press on the 81st anniversary of D-Day in June, talking amid the stainless rows of graves on the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Seashore.
“We’re their household. We’ve got the duty to honor these guys who gave us an opportunity to be alive.”
He went on to struggle by the Battle of the Bulge, a grueling month-long struggle in Belgium and Luxembourg that was one of many defining moments of the struggle and of Hitler’s defeat. His service earned him a Bronze Star and a French Legion of Honor award.
In recent times, Larson made repeated journeys to Normandy for D-Day commemorations — and at each cease, “Papa Jake” was greeted by individuals asking for a selfie. In return, he supplied up a giant hug, to their best pleasure.
One memorable encounter got here in 2023, when he got here throughout Bill Gladden, a then-99-year-old British veteran who survived a glider touchdown on D-Day and a bullet that tore by his ankle.
“I need to offer you a hug, thanks. I acquired tears in my eyes. We have been meant to satisfy,” Larson advised Gladden, as their fingers, lined and noticed with age, clasped tightly. Gladden died the next yr.
In his TikTok posts and interviews, Larson mixed humorous anecdotes with somber reminders concerning the horrors of struggle.
Reflecting to AP on the three years he was in Europe, Larson mentioned he’s “no hero.” Talking in 2024, he additionally had a message to world leaders: “Make peace not struggle.”
He typically known as himself “the luckiest man on the planet,” and expressed awe in any respect the eye he was getting. “I am only a nation boy. Now I am a star on TikTok,” he advised AP in 2023. “I am a legend! I did not plan this, it happened.”
Small-town museums and teams round Normandy that work to honor D-Day’s heroes and fallen shared tributes on-line to Larson, considered one of their most loyal guests.
“He was an distinctive witness and bearer of reminiscence,” the Overlord Museum posted on Fb.
“He got here yearly to the museum, together with his smile, his humility and his tales that touched all generations. His tales will proceed to reside. Relaxation in peace Papa Jake,” it learn.
“Thanks for the whole lot.”
