Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
Gospel singer, evangelist and all around inspiration Duranice Pace died on Thursday at 62-years-old. Her family shared the sad news.
Earlier this month, on January 5, Pace’s family members shared that she had been hospitalized and asked fans to pray for her healing.
On her Instagram page, they wrote:
“Please keep the prayers, support and love coming as Duranice still fights and gets stronger in the hospital. She is eternally grateful for all of you and she can’t wait to announce a special concert-event that she has been planning with a team of Broadway professionals.”
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Duranice was the eldest sister of the gospel group she formed with her sisters in 1988, The Anointed Pace Sisters, featuring her sisters Phyllis Pace, June Pace-Martin, Melonda Pace, Dejuaii Pace, Leslie Pace, Latrice Pace, Lydia Pace and recurring member LaShun Pace, who also enjoyed a successful solo career.
According to Variety, from 1999 to 2009, the Pace Sisters released several albums, four of which charted on Billboard Gospel Albums list.
While the reason for her most recent hospitalization was never disclosed, Duranice battled thyroid cancer for many years.
Duranice told Steve Harvey that she had beat the odds several times over. When she was first diagnosed with the cancer, she was told that she may never even speak again. And the prognosis was that she only had three years to live.
Pace told Harvey, “I believe the Lord gave me a touch when they fed rat poison in Rochester, New York and they cut out half of my vocal chords and they said I’ll never talk again. But the man upstairs said, ‘You gon sing again.’”
At the time of her interview with Harvey, in 2019, she had outlived the doctors’ predictions by eight years.
But this wasn’t the first time, Pace proved that she could overcome the worst of life.
In 2013, the Pace sisters appeared on “Iyanla Fix My Life.” There, Duranice shared that she was a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of her uncle when she was 12-years-old.
Doctors told her she would always have “problems” as a result of the violation.
In the later years of her life, Pace’s star continued to shine as several videos of her singing went viral all over social media platforms, and even inspired the creation of the popular Instagram account, They Have The Range.
Since the news of her death has gone public, several people have left tribute in her honor, including Steve Harvey, who was particularly moved by her story.
Check out clips of Duranice Pace and her amazing gift from God on the following pages.
