They called him ‘Buddy.’ Mooresville family names new seafood market for beloved son
Three brothers who fished the Catawba River with their grandfather as boys fulfilled a lifelong dream with the Oct. 7 opening of Buddy’s Seafood Market in their hometown of Mooresville.
When Aviston, Cornell and Jemel Harris thought about a name for their venture, the choice was clear:
The name would pay homage to “Buddy,” as everyone affectionately called Cornell and LaSheria Harris’s son, Cornell Rashad Harris Jr.
“Buddy” had multiple disabilities and died on June 20 at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. He was almost 18, his parents told The Lake Norman Observer at the seafood market days after the opening.
“Buddy” was the joy of their close-knit family, they said.
“He was a real carefree kid,” Cornell Harris said. “Very energetic, a real good kid.”
And now he is forever memorialized, at the market that opened in a retail strip (Little Caeser’s Pizza) on Commons Drive, off N.C. 150 at U.S. 21.
From tent to building
The brothers previously operated the business under a tent at the farmers market at Liberty Park in downtown Mooresville, but the pandemic forced them to close, Cornell Harris told the Observer.
They eventually decided that if they were to open again, the business would be in a store-front building.
Cornell Harris is 44, Jemel Harris is 46 and Aviston Harris is 40.
Cornell Harris credits Aviston as the driving force behind the market.
“Aviston was the visionary,” he said. Even as a boy, “he had a passion for fish markets,” Cornell Harris said.
Blue crab specialty
The brothers developed a “catch-y” slogan for the market: “Be Careful or You’re Gonna Get Hooked.”
Buddy’s carries a wide selection of fin and shellfish primarily from the N.C. coast — mahi mahi, flounder, black sea bass, whiting, sheepshead, grouper, catfish, porgy, perch, king and Spanish mackerel, to name a few.
The market’s specialty: No. 1 blue crab from the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds and the Chesapeake Bay.
Some of the fish sold at Buddy’s also are from Virginia waters, Cornell and LaSheria Harris said, but most are from North Carolina.
The N.C. Department of Agriculture certified the market through its Got to Be NC program that recognizes local businesses that raise and/or sell N.C. foods, from vegetables, beef and dairy on farms to fish caught in rivers, sounds and the ocean.
Tractor plow cut path to river
The market grew out of the brothers’ lifelong love of fishing, a passion that one generation of the family passed on to the next, Cornell Harris said.
Their late father, Robert Harris, whom Cornell Harris described as the greatest of role models, liked to fish.
“Our father was a living example to us,” Cornell Harris said.
Their grandfather, John Lineberger, also was a loving, positive influence on them, along with his wife, their grandmother, Gladys Lineberger, Cornell Harris said.
John Lineberger spread the joy of fishing and the outdoors to them, Cornell Harris said of the man they addressed as “Pawpaw.”
The Linebergers owned land on Little Mountain Road in Sherrills Ford where they raised cattle, pigs and crops.
They welcomed their grandsons to the farm each day in summer.
With his tractor plow, John Lineberger cut a path through woods on his land down to the river. He took the boys fishing there after picking them up in Mooresville, Cornell Harris said.
John Lineberger, who died in 2013 at age 92, told them the best spot to snare fish in the river was by rocks. He was right, Cornell Harris said.
Those early-life experiences made the brothers who they are today, Cornell Harris said, with the legacy of their elders living on through the market.
Buddy’s Seafood Market
Location: 115-C Commons Drive, Mooresville NC 28117.
Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday.
Phone: 704-360-2727.
Email address: Contact@harrisbrothersseafood.com.
Website: Buddysseafoodmarketlkn.com.
This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 6:00 AM.