Soon-ja Kang
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Mama Kang”
5 October 1944 — 3 December 2023 · aged 79
South LA grocer who kept a green notebook of neighbors' debts and forgave every one
Los Angeles, United States Born in Daegu, South Korea Resting at Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, CaliforniaAbout Soon-ja
Soon-ja Kang kept two ledgers behind the register at Kang's Market: one for the store, and a small green notebook, the one that mattered, for neighbors who needed groceries until Friday. In forty years she never collected on the notebook's last page. When she finally closed the store, she tore out every page and burned them in the alley, saying the debts had been paid in other ways.
Born in Daegu in 1944, the fifth of six children of a rice merchant, she studied home economics at Kyungpook National University and married Jae-won Kang, an electrical engineer, in 1970. They emigrated to Los Angeles in 1978 with two children and four hundred dollars. She sewed in a garment factory by day and cleaned offices by night until 1983, when the couple scraped together enough to buy a small market on a corner in South Los Angeles.
She learned the name of every customer's children, stocked collard greens and tortillas beside the kimchi and Asian pears, and was known for pressing an extra orange into the hand of any child who came in alone. In April 1992 the store burned. Soon-ja stood on the sidewalk the next morning, and in the weeks that followed neighbors of ten years arrived with brooms, buckets and a hand-lettered sign: “Mama Kang, come back.” She reopened in 1993, and nobody ever again asked her where she planned to go.
At her Korean church she was a kwonsa, a senior deaconess, and her kimchi, made in forty-pound batches every November, was served at funeral lunches for thirty years. She was ferocious at gin rummy, devoted to Korean dramas, and quietly proud that her granddaughters spoke to her in Korean and to each other in English.
Soon-ja died peacefully at home in Los Angeles on 3 December 2023, aged seventy-nine. Her husband died in 2015. She is survived by her son Daniel, her daughter Esther, four grandchildren and her younger brother Young-ho in Seoul. In lieu of flowers, her family asks that you buy something from a neighborhood store and say hello.
“A store is just a room until somebody knows your name inside it.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Daegu, South Korea
- Resting place
- Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, California
- Passed away
- 3 December 2023, Los Angeles
Funeral Service
Saturday, 9 December 2023 at 12:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Mama Kang First-Generation Scholarship
A scholarship for first-generation college students from the neighborhood around Kang's Market, administered by the family.
$3,994.75 raised of $7,500
53%20 recent contributions
- PH
Pastor David Hwang gave $190 · 2y ago
- JR
Jean-Guy Roy gave $71.25 · 2y ago
- RR
Rebecca Rosenfeld-Katz gave $71.25 · 2y ago
- LO
Lars Olsson gave $71.25 · 2y ago
- BA
Bimpe Ajayi-Cole gave $237.50 · 2y ago
Life journey
B.A. in Home Economics
Kyungpook National University1963 – 1967 · Daegu, South Korea
Graduated first in a class of forty women.
Emigrated to Los Angeles
1978 · Los Angeles
Arrived with her husband, two children and four hundred dollars.
Seamstress
Garment district factory1978 – 1983 · Los Angeles
Sewed by day, cleaned offices by night, and saved every dollar for a store.
Owner, Kang's Market
Kang's Market1983 – 2018 · South Los Angeles
Rebuilt after the fire of 1992 and kept the doors open for another twenty-five years.
Kwonsa (Senior Deaconess)
Korean Presbyterian church, Los Angeles1994 – 2023 · Los Angeles
Made kimchi for every funeral lunch and never accepted payment.
Certificate of Recognition
Los Angeles City Council2010 · Los Angeles
For decades of service to the neighborhood's families.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Soon-ja is survived by
- Daniel Kang· Son
- Esther Kang Lee· Daughter
- Young-ho Choi· Brother
- 4 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Soon-ja.
Knew Soon-ja? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- MW
Neighborhood kid, now a high school teacher
Every day after school Mama Kang pressed an orange into my hand and told me to study. I'm a teacher now. Each June I buy a box of oranges for my graduating seniors and tell them where the tradition started.
- SP
Childhood friend from Daegu
We were girls together on Dongseongno Street, sharing one pair of shoes between us on rainy days. She promised she'd send for me when she made her fortune. She sent a postcard from Los Angeles every Christmas for forty-five years. It was the fortune that mattered.
- JH
Delivery driver, produce supplier
I delivered boxes to her door at 5 a.m. for twenty-six years. She always had hot barley tea waiting and always checked the lettuce herself. When I lost my brother she closed the store for an afternoon to come to the wake. I am honored to have known her.
- PH
Pastor, Korean Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles
For thirty years her kimchi sat at the center of every funeral lunch in our congregation. She never asked for credit, only for the empty containers to be returned. Today we carry hers back to her, with gratitude and a very big appetite.
- MJ
Customer for thirty-eight years
When my wife was sick in 1991, Mama Kang quietly sent bags of groceries to our porch every Friday and never wrote it in the notebook. I found out years later. A woman like that does not come along twice. The whole block loved her and we never told her enough.
- EL
Daughter
Mom could say “Are you hungry?” in ten different tones and you knew exactly what she meant each time. I spent my whole childhood doing homework on a milk crate by the register, and I thought it was a punishment. It was the best education I ever got.
