By SARA EDMONDS
Skagit Valley Herald

As soon as Cyndy Lawrence and Shara Hawkins heard the news about Michael Jackson’s unexpected death, they raced into Wal-Mart to snag a couple Michael Jackson CDs before the store ran out.

Hawkins, a certified medical assistant, and her friend Lawrence, a registered nurse, snapped up the last two of three Jackson CDs in the store.

“It was shock and disbelief when I heard Michael Jackson died,” Hawkins said. “We are fans from way back when. We graduated, both of us, in ‘88 so we grew up with him.”

Lawrence said she was picking up the Jackson CD for a tribute party that she and some girlfriends from her high school days were having this weekend.

“We’re going to listen to his music around the campfire,” Lawrence said.

The two women got their CDs in the nick of time. Since Jackson’s sudden death, record stores can’t keep his albums on the shelf.

By Friday morning, fans had emptied the shelves at the local Fred Meyer, Target and Best Buy of Jackson albums.

Michael Baldwin, Burlington Fred Meyer’s Home Electronics manager, said that by Friday morning, the store had already sold all 17 copies of the albums there.

“I knew how many we had because I did a price change on all of the Thriller CDs Wednesday morning, and when I came to work this morning they were completely gone,” Baldwin said.

All of the stores have placed emergency orders for Jackson albums, CDs and DVDs that are expected to arrive at most stores by early next week. Fred Meyer expects a shipment today that will be two to three times the size of its last one.

On a sunny afternoon in Mount Vernon’s Pine Street Plaza, two women reflected on their own memories of Jackson.

Maggie Wallace, who works in sales, and her friend Sonia Fails, a visitor from Erie, Penn., are also Jackson fans. It was a major shock to them when they heard of his death, especially because he was only 50 years old.

They said their earliest memories of him was when he was performing with The Jackson Five.

“We watched him from the beginning of his career because it was so in the forefront,” Wallace said. “When you look at all that he contributed from a musical standpoint, for a long time — we’re talking 45 years — it’s just amazing.”

Jackson was the innovator of not only performing, but dancing, singing and music videos. Jackson’s “Black or White” music video was revolutionary for his time, Fails said. The video features faces of all races morphing from one to another while singing the song. And then there’s the moon walk.

“I remember watching Live at the Apollo (on TV) when he did the moon walk for the first time. It was a big deal,” Fails said. “… It was totally new. Nobody else did it. It was the first time we had ever seen a male performer dance like that.”

• Sara Edmonds can be reached at 360-416-2112 or at .