Anointed Pace Sister and “I Know I’ve Been Changed” powerhouse singer LaShun Pace has passed at the age of 60 after health complications, her family confirms. Senior Editor James R. Sanders tributes the singer and her legacy.

Different shades of pink congested the pews at Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral on April 2. Aarion Rhodes, who is Tarrian “LaShun” Pace’s only living daughter, came dressed in the softest pink pencil-cut knee-length dress, accessorized with two strands of long pearls and bugle-sleeves flounced at the wrist to say goodbye to her mother. She was stunning. Each of The Anointed Pace Sisters with the exception of the incomparable Duranice (who passed last year) were behind her.

On March 21, gospel music lost one of its biggest voices when news broke that LaShun had passed. She’d been on the kidney transplant list and was on dialysis for the last five years. She was 60.

LaShun Pace’s voice is an experience. Those in the gospel industry called her the greatest soprano this side of heaven — a title well-deserved. Sopranos, where typically colorful and light, they can, at times, lack the power of a belter, but not LaShun; she was different.

“I remember as a little girl praying he (God) would give me a range like her’s (LaShun) and he didn’t; I believe to keep me humble,” said gospel singer Jekalyn Carr.

LaShun’s voice could shatter ceilings, break strongholds, and light the darkest places — but make no mistake about it, that had little to do with her tone, and everything to do with her anointing. When she sang “Just Because God Said It,” you believed her.

“LaShun was one of those people, when you experienced her, you experienced where she came from,” gospel artist Donald Lawrence said.

Every time you heard her sing, it felt like the first time. That’s her real legacy, her voice is only part of the story.

“My mom was just pure sugar,” Aarion said of her mother at the homegoing service. “She was a cool chick, she loved us extravagantly.”

And then in one last tribute to her mother, she sang their favorite song — one they would sing together, often over the phone, “From the Bottom of My Heart,” a classic by Stevie Wonder. Aarion’s tone is undeniably Pace-like with hints of contemporary influences from the school of Jazmine and Brandy.

LaShun and Aarion were very close, especially after the passing of her oldest daughter, Xenia who died at 11 in 2001.

IN EVERYTHING, GIVE THANKS

Like she did every day, LaShun dropped her daughter off at school and told Xenia “I’ll see you later, if it’s the Lord’s will.” In less than an hour, she got a phone call from her child’s school saying that she had been rushed to the hospital.

There, in the emergency room, she began speaking to God.

It was in Poole Creek, Atlanta, that she, Duranice, Phyllis, June, Melonda, Dejuaii, Leslie, Latrice, Lydia, and their brother MJ all watched Bettie Ann pray for her children and husband. Poole Creek doesn’t exist anymore, but the lessons learned live on, including the most important which was to pray without ceasing.

Those who knew Bettie Ann could attest — she was a praying (and singing) woman.

On “Xenia’s Fight” off her album, Complete: From the Hospital to the Church, LaShun sings, “But while I was sitting in that hospital room, he (God) said what would your mother do if she was here? I said she’d start praying.”

And that’s what she did.

“God go back in that room with the doctors, Lord guide their hands with Xenia, I don’t know what’s wrong, but you know Jesus.”

The day she sings about on “Xenia’s Fight” is the last day she saw her daughter. Xenia died of an enlarged heart.

Shortly after her passing, she took to the stage for Azusa 4 the then, famous convention series led by Bishop Carlton Pearson that included preaching and concerts. No one expected LaShun to perform while still grieving.

“She was one of the sweetest spirits,” Bishop Carlton Pearson said. “She was never arrogant, she loved God’s people, and was very anointed,” he added. “What a very special presence she was on the earth.”

Her famous soprano, as strong as ever, commanded the room and had a fearless strength behind it that felt hard fought and earned through trial and tribulation. Hers were the only dry eyes in the room as she roared on “Is Your All On The Altar.”

“When the lord took my daughter, honey there was a newfound respect that I found in God,” she said on the stage during that performance. “The Holy Ghost spoke to me one morning and said I want to be your best friend,” she shared. “Whatever’s bothering you, tell me,” God told her, she said. “Whoever’s bothering you, you tell me, and I’m going to handle it.”

WHAT HAPPENED TO POOLE CREEK?

Atlanta’s airport is the largest in the country. With its expansion, smaller areas were swallowed, never to be seen again. But their legacy stands in story and song; the all-Black neighborhood of Poole Creek is one such place.

“My mind goes back to when I was a little girl,” LaShun sings on “Walk With Me” off her debut album He Lives which was released in 1991. Through song, she tells the story of her family, living in the small sub-division where her mother famously sang and prayed as she did the cleaning throughout the house.

“In that little house, there was a praying woman. And every time we went down to the clothesline, hanging our clothes on the clothesline, she would be praying, Lord please save my children.”

Poole Creek was an integral part of the development of LaShun’s testimony and ministry. At a certain point, her mother told her, “It’s time you get to know God for yourself.”

LaShun was the fifth of 10 singing children. She had one brother, Murphy III, called M.J., and eight sisters.

Those sisters would become the legendary group known as The Anointed Pace Sisters, a gospel outfit prolific for natural and spiritual talents. From the eldest to the youngest, their voices were each formidable.

There is no way that any of us could even fathom any level of success without acknowledging the powerhouse of LaShun Pace,” Pastor Kim Burrell said. “There is no sound like the Pace sound at all. We stand on the shoulders of the Pace Sisters.”

Her live performance, LaShun Pace “Back To Poole Creek!” should have been named for her mother, because Bettie Ann, whose voice has all the anointed parts of the Pace sisters’ tones in one, captivated the audience with her powerhouse vocals and delivery.

LaShun screams to the audience, “Well! Let’s go back to Poole Creek.” The audience applauds as Bettie Ann readies her voice. “In Poole Creek Mother, you came to know God in a very real way,” LaShun signals to her mother.

“When I look all around me I see, I see all what the Lord has done for me…” Bettie blows “And then I don’t know, I don’t know what I, what I would do without the Lord…”

The sisters, brother, and father all look on with an admiration that establishes very clearly why Bettie Ann Pace was who she was — a pioneer, and a woman whose prayers saved everybody.

I KNOW I’VE BEEN CHANGED

Tyler Perry’s stage play, I Know I’ve Been Changed helped build his empire. It came before the Madea franchise and way before any of us had imagined there would be a Tyler Perry Studios. The writer named the play for LaShun’s biggest hit and he put her in the production. The two became lifelong friends.

When Bettie Ann became ill a few years ago, Perry purchased a home for the family where Bettie would spend her time being cared for by the entire Pace family.

A marriage, a divorce, and a slew of disappointing relationships for years, LaShun had no problem declaring on mic, on stage, and on record, “your hair ain’t curly enough, your skin ain’t light enough, your stuff ain’t big enough to make me miss out on God.”

“I loved shun,” fellow gospel legend Yolanda Adams said. “That was my girl. There will be a void, she filled it with laughter.”

MY TIMES ARE IN HIS HANDS

“Act Like You Know,” off her 1996 album A Wealthy Place went viral this year on TikTok of all places and sparked a resurgence for the gospel legend. The song, which originally featured fellow soprano powerhouse Karen Clark-Sheard, showed Anointed Pace Sister Leslie in this specific clip and was adopted by content creators from all over the world.

One after the other, the Pace family lost Bettie Ann in 2020 and then the oldest of the Pace sisters Duranice in 2021. Around that time, LaShun began releasing a series of videos on her YouTube channel for her fans where she was ministering to the people in a series of messages about humbleness, scripture, and the spirit of Christ.

At her homegoing, there was a common thread in what those who spoke said, but gospel superstar Earnest Pugh said it best, “With her gift and talent, she could have been a whole other way, but she embodied holiness. I can appreciate the standard that she upheld.”