The gospel world is stunned to learn that gospel great, LaShun Pace has passed away.
LaShun was an award winning, singer, songwriter, actress and evangelist with a career that has spanned over 40 years.
She was a member of the legendary gospel family, the Anointed Pace sisters, which included her other 8 sisters: Duranice, Phyllis, June, Melonda, Dejuaii, Leslie, Latrice, and Lydia.
At the beginning of the career, the sister group won Best Gospel Group at a COGIC convention that launched them into stardom. After the win, they began to tour nationally with their singing uncle Evangelist Gene Martin.
LaShun sung with her sisters, The Anointed Pace Sisters, until around 1988. After that, she branched off as a solo artist. Her debut album reached #2 on the Billboard Gospel charts and solidified LaShun as a solo performer. That debut album included the hit “I Know I Been Changed,” which would become a Christian church staple.
Despite her individual success, LaShun continued pursuing a solo career while singing with her sisters.
In 1992, the powerhouse soprano appeared as the Angel of Mercy in the Steve Martin film Leap of Faith. She would later star in faith-based musicals such as David E. Talbert’s A Fool and His Money. In 2003, she appeared in the movie The Fighting Temptations with Beyonce Knowles & Cuba Gooding.
By 2007, LaShun Pace had recorded seven albums, all of which spent time in Billboard’s Gospel Top 10. Her album, “Complete,” was released in 2007.
These albums garnered her several awards, including two Stellar Awards.
In 2003 LaShun penned her autobiography entitled, For My Good But For His Glory in which she offered a transparent view into her struggles and triumphs.
According to her autobiography, LaShun got married at the age of 25 to Edward Rhodes, a singer, who would later become her manager. They would later divorce. She credits her sister Phyllis and her love of the game, Scrabble, for keeping her mind pre-occupied after her divorce.
In 2007, LaShun was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame. She was scheduled to attend the official presentation ceremony with many other guests but became ill and could not attend.
In May 2012, LaShun revealed that she battling cancer and needed emergency surgery.
In January 2015, LaShun and the Anointed Pace Sisters were honored in their hometown of Atlanta at the 16th Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards.
In 2021, her sister Duranice Pace passed away. A year before that, her mother, Bettie Ann Pace, died at the age of 82. Sadly, her eldest daughter passed away in 2001 at the age of 11 due to a heart condition.
LaShun has a second daughter, Aarion Pace Rhodes, who is also a singer. Aarion was born in 1993.
It was only revealed recently that LaShun had been on dialysis for 5 years. She was awaiting a kidney but died of organ failure the morning of March 22nd, according to her sister, Lydia Pace.
Words cannot give justice to the vocal gift that LaShun Pace possessed. Her soprano voice was strong and distinctive.
Her signature songs included "I Know I've Been Changed" and "There's a Leak in This Old Building."
She was one of a powerhouse singer who evangelized through her music, prayers, and daily living. She was truly one of a kind.
Her passing is a huge loss for the gospel community.
LaShun was just 60 years old.