Overview
- Pace’s family said she died peacefully while visiting relatives, and multiple outlets published obituaries recognizing her pioneering career.
- She broke barriers as the first Black woman under long-term contract at Columbia, the first Black bachelorette on The Dating Game, and the first spokesmodel for Fashion Fair Cosmetics.
- Her screen work spanned Peyton Place, an NAACP Image Award-winning turn on The Young Lawyers, the landmark TV movie Brian’s Song, and films including Cotton Comes to Harlem and The Slams.
- In 1971 she co-founded the Kwanza Foundation with Nichelle Nichols to support Black women in film and to fund scholarships for minority arts students.
- She is survived by daughters Shawn and Julia Pace Mitchell and a grandson; she was previously married to actor Don Mitchell and later to baseball trailblazer Curt Flood.