TikTok’s beloved WWII veteran ‘Papa Jake’ Larson passes away at 102

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Jake Larson, a World War II veteran who amassed greater than 1.2 million followers on TikTok, has died on the age of 102, his granddaughter introduced on social media.

Identified affectionately on-line as "Papa Jake," Larson helped plan the D-Day invasion and stormed Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. He turned an unlikely social media star when his granddaughter began a TikTok account for him, which was adopted by his autobiography.

"Our beloved Papa Jake has handed away on July seventeenth at 102 years younger. Please know, he went peacefully and was even cracking jokes til the very finish," his granddaughter, McKaela Larson, wrote on Instagram. "Right now, the household and I ask for some privateness as we course of this loss."

"I'm so grateful to have shared my Papa Jake with you all. You meant the world to him. When the time is true, I'll proceed to share Papa Jake’s tales and maintain his reminiscence alive," she added. "We admire all the type phrases and posts. As Papa would say, love you all of the mostest."

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: REMEMBERING COURAGE ON THE 81ST ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY

Jake Larson attends a D-Day anniversary celebration on the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial on June 6, 2023 in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Pictures)

Born on Dec. 20, 1922, in Owatonna, Minnesota, Larson grew up on a farm with out electrical energy or working water in the course of the Nice Melancholy. He enlisted within the Nationwide Guard in 1938 at age 15, mendacity about his age, based on the Finest Protection Basis. His unit was transferred to federal service in 1941 following Japan’s shock assault on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

In January 1942, he was despatched abroad and was stationed in Northern Eire. He turned operations sergeant and assembled the planning books for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. Larson was among the many Allied troops who stormed the Normandy shore on D-Day, June 6, 1944, surviving machine-gun fireplace when he landed on Omaha Seaside. He made it unharmed to the bluffs that overlook the seaside, then studded with German gun emplacements that mowed down American troopers.

After D-Day, he fought on via the Battle of the Bulge. He and his sweetheart, Lola, later settled in California, the place they raised a household after the conflict.

In 2020, his granddaughter began a TikTok account, "storytimewithpapajake," via which he has amassed on-line fame. He authored an autobiography in 2021 titled "The Luckiest Man within the World: Tales from the lifetime of Papa Jake."

Larson returned to Normandy for a number of D-Day anniversary and memorial celebrations in recent times.

WORLD WAR II VETERANS TRAVEL TO NORMANDY FOR EMOTIONAL D-DAY COMMEMORATION

"We're the fortunate ones," Larson informed 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 Seaside.

"That they had no household. We're their household. Now we have the accountability to honor these guys who gave us an opportunity to be alive."

Jake Larson, who was the operations sergeant and assembled the planning books for Operation Overlord, arrives on the Deauville-Normandie Airport in Saint-Gatien-des-Bois, northwestern France, on June 2, 2022. (SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP through Getty Pictures)

Larson earlier this month shared a message with Fox Information Digital on Independence Day in regards to the significance of freedom.

"God bless all these guys that served, they usually served the last word," Larson informed Fox Information Digital from his dwelling in Lafayette, Calif., on the Fourth of July. "Their souls are trying down at me now."

"Each time I discuss, I prefer to remind individuals these guys upstairs trying down at us, they're the heroes… None of us each thought we might be heroes."

Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks with 102-year-old WWII and D-Day veteran Jake Larson, often known as "Papa Jake", after a memorial ceremony on the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, north-western France, on June 6, 2025. (LOU BENOIST/AFP through Getty Pictures)

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Tributes from the Zac Brown Model, Unsubscribe Podcast and podcaster and retired Navy officer, Jacko Willink, have been shared to Larson's Instagram account's tales.

Fox Information' Ashley DiMella and the Related Press contributed to this report.

Danielle Wallace is a breaking information and politics reporter at Fox Information Digital. Story suggestions will be despatched to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace .