You could barely hear the music coming from Sheena Johnson's cubical on the 14th floor of the Durham Centre building downtown. She had to keep it quiet at work. But "MJ" was there with her nonetheless.

"I have Michael Jackson shirts," she said. "I was actually going to wear one but I decided that it might not be office-appropriate."

The Durham professional in her mid-20s wasn't even born when the "Thriller" album came out. But now she has every one Michael Jackson released before his death.

"I remember we'd go on family vacations and we'd listen to Michael Jackson," she said.

One thing that amazed Triangle Michael Jackson fans is how fast the news of his death spread Thursday.

"I was only in the car for about 5 minutes once I started to receive e-mails and text-messages and phone calls," Johnson said. "By the time I got the first text message, I had already received three or four others."

"I think everybody's going to remember, ‘What were you doing when Michael Jackson passed away?'"

Johnson never got to see him in concert. But Thorne Daubenspeck, who works down the street at the Durham Performing Arts Center, did -- in the 80s.

"I barely saw him ... if you want to call it the nose bleeds," he said. "The screaming and the shrills and people just going crazy at the concert; I was in awe. It was a great moment."

Daubenspeck has every album downloaded on his iPod. He, too, carried it to work with him Friday.

"It is a celebration in a sense that how good his music was and how it made people feel," Daubenspeck said. "I think for me, just listening to it ... it comes all into perspective again and again for me and how important it was in your life."