Fayetteville grieves loss of beloved fish market owner 'Mrs. Chang'

For nearly three decades, Charles and Sun Thompson, affectionately known as Mr. and Mrs. Chang, owned and operated Chang’s Fish Market in Fayetteville. The couple, with five children between them, worked side-by-side every day serving fresh seafood from a shop that, to many, felt like home.

When Charles Thompson, 72, died on Father's Day 2021 of prostate cancer, the loss reverberated through the community they'd built. That his bride of 25 years would join him 16 months later wasn't an outcome anyone saw coming.

On the one-year anniversary of the loss of Charles, Sun Thompson, 64, suffered an aneurysm, then a five-week coma. Doctors told her daughter Jennifer McNair that her mother’s chances of surviving the incident were "only 5%."

Thompson beat the odds, but in late October she fell ill with COVID-19 while recovering at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, and her health took a turn for the worse, McNair said.

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McNair said she believes her mother survived for a few more months after her coma to make sure that her family would be OK without her.

“She was always worried about taking care of her family,” Jennifer said. “I think about a pack of lions and the female lion is the leader of the pack. She was that. She runs the pack.”

But on Nov. 10 at the age of 64, Sun Thompson joined her husband.

Thompson and her husband ran the market since 1995. Three of her kids, Jennifer McNair, Sabrina McNair and Edward McNair work there.

The Johnson Street fish market dates to the late ‘80s and has long been a neighborhood gathering spot. Regulars sit, linger, chat, read a magazine or newspaper and when they're done, take home seriously fresh seafood.

Sun Thompson, a native of Jeju, South Korea, was just as well-known for her homemade kimchi sold by the mason jar, as she was for her down-to-earth but no-nonsense demeanor, Jennifer McNair said. It wasn’t uncommon for her mother to come out from behind the counter, take off her apron and sit down alongside her customers to catch up, McNair said.

Thompson not only knew her customers’ orders but also what sports their kids played and what they did for work, McNair said. They weren’t just her customers — they were her friends.

“She could share her life with them, and they would share theirs with her,” McNair said.

Those close relationships established over the years resulted in things like a customer installing plexiglass dividers at the counter for free at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an elaborate flower arrangement sent to the market by a Fort Bragg soldier while deployed to Poland.

Mrs. Chang emigrated from South Korea

Born Sun Chin on Aug. 11, 1958, Thompson grew up on the South Korean island of Jeju where her father was a commercial fisherman and she scuba-dived and hiked.

She met her first husband, a U.S. Army soldier by the name of Johnny McNair, in South Korea. The McNairs lived on several Army installations around the U.S. before settling in Fayetteville in the late ‘80s, Jennifer McNair said. The pair had three children.

Following the end of her first marriage, she met Charles Thompson, Jr. who had two children of his own. The couple took over the fish market in 1995 and were married round Valentine's day a year later.

“They were two peas in a pod,” Jennifer McNair said. “They really didn’t do anything separate.”

When Charles died on June 20, 2021, McNair said her mother was “truly broken-hearted.”

Chang’s Fish Market lives on

McNair said she and her siblings intend to keep the fish market running for as long as possible.

“I’m doing everything that I possibly can to keep the doors open,” she said.

She said she owes it to her mother and the customers the Thompsons treated like family to stay in business, and keep their legacy alive.

McNair said her mother came to the U.S. without any family or resources and was able to build a life for herself. Her story shows that with hard work you can find success, even without perfect English or a lot of formal education, she said.

“I think that’s why other people love her so much,” McNair said. “They saw that in her.”

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Fayetteville grieves Mrs. Chang

A Nov. 12 post on the market’s Facebook page announced her death to friends, family and customers. Nearly 500 commenters offered their condolences and the post was shared more than 800 times.

“She dedicated herself to her craft and was a master at it. She left an imprint on the city of Fayetteville that will not be forgotten,” the post said.

McNair said when customers learned of her mother's death, dozens of people in Fayetteville and beyond shared stories of Thompson's kindness.

“People come to me and say, ‘She helped me feed my children when I didn’t have any money,’” she said.

The Thompsons poured their hearts into the fish market and got back as much as they gave.

"She was loved by so many people in the community," McNair said. "I cried for my own self, but I grieve for the community as well."

Reporter Taylor Shook can be reached at tshook@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: 'Mrs. Chang,' Fayetteville fish market owner, dies at 64