Gospel star LaShun Pace dies at 60
Gospel singer LaShun Pace died March 21 at age 60. Her family told local news outlets in Atlanta that the singer had been on renal dialysis for five years and died of organ failure.
Pace began her music career in the 1970s, first as a solo artist and then with her eight sisters in the Grammy-nominated group the Anointed Pace Sisters, commonly known as the Pace Sisters.
According to Essence magazine, Pace and her siblings—she had one brother in addition to her eight sisters—came from a musical family. Their father sang in a professional gospel quartet, along with pastoring a Church of God in Christ congregation, and their mother, Bettie Ann Pace, sang during church services. Pace got her start singing in church as well.
Pace’s signature song “I Know I’ve Been Changed” became a mainstay in Black church communities and was the inspiration for a 1998 Tyler Perry play of the same name.
On Twitter, author and theologian Candice Benbow said Pace’s voice had helped define the sound of the Black church.
“I don’t think it’s possible to have had an authentic Black church experience and not have been impacted by the Pace family, specifically LaShun Pace.”
Pace was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2015, the Anointed Pace Sisters were celebrated at the Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards.
