TikTok cooking star Lynn “Lynja” Yamada Davis has passed away at 67 after a battle with cancer.
Davis was best known for her TikTok show “Cooking with Lynja.” According to The New York Times, her daughter Hannah Mariko Shofet said she died on January 1 in Red Bank, New Jersey, from esophageal cancer.
Davis’ son Tim posted a TikTok on her account, letting her followers know that she passed.
“When I think of my mom, this is who I think of,” he said, per ABC 7. “The Internet’s grandma. She was the best. So glad you guys got to experience how wonderful of a person she was and that you guys treated her so well.”
Davis was born Lynn Yamada on July 31, 1956, in New York City to to Japanese American parents Tadao Yamada and Mabel Fujisake Yamada, The New York Times reports. According to the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, her father, Tadao trained members of the Military Intelligence Service during World War II.
Lynn Yamada Davis built a late-in-life career as a TikTok cooking star that brought her worldwide fame. Her father, Tadao Yamada, spent World War II training members of the Military Intelligence Service before helping create the Mikasa China company.https://t.co/10U1bZA61P
— Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (@HeartMountainWY) January 12, 2024
In 1977, Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Massachussets Institute of Technology. She also earned a master’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University.
Accoridng to The New York Times, she had a long career in telecommunications, working at one point for Bell Labs, which is now AT&T. She was the mother of four children.
Davis began posting cooking videos with her son Tim a few years ago. She became a viral sensation in 2021 after posting a video making a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, CBS News reports. Over the years she amassed over 30 million followers across several social media platforms.
Davis also worked with other creators like chef and food personality Nick DiGiovanni. According to ABC 7, DiGiovanni and Davis set the Guiness World Record for creating the largest donut in September 2023.
“You might remember her as the fun-loving cooking grandma. But I’ll always remember her as the woman who fought off her cancer diagnosis for as long as she could, humbly and quietly without ever complaining,” he said in the video.
According to ABC 7, Lynja is survived by husband Keith Davis, daughters Shofet and Becky Steinberg; sons Tim Davis and Sean Davis; and siblings Jay Yamada and Karen Yamada Dolce.
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