Bishop Rance Allen

1948 - 2020

(News story) Bishop Rance Allen, pastor of New Bethel Church in Toledo since 1985 and a widely admired titan of contemporary gospel music, died Saturday morning. He was 71.

His death was announced on the Rance Allen Group's Facebook page.

"While recovering from a medical procedure at Heartland ProMedica [in Sylvania], Bishop Rance Allen passed away around 3 a.m. this morning," his wife, Ellen Allen, and manager, Toby Jackson, said in a statement.

His younger brother, Steve Allen, 68, said Mr. Allen died unexpectedly while recovering from back surgery he underwent Tuesday.

He had been doing so well until his setback that family members were told he would be sent home early this week, he said.

"He never fully recovered from that," he said.

Steve Allen, and their older brother, Tom Allen, 74, formed the nucleus of the famous Rance Allen Group, with middle brother Rance Allen as the featured singer.

The group performed together nearly 50 years, including a 2015 performance at the White House for then-President Barack Obama.

Rance Allen was "the glue for the group," his younger brother said.

They stopped performing only because they could not continue to sing in front of large crowds once the coronavirus pandemic hit.

"He was the Muhammad Ali of singing,"" Steve Allen said. "You put a microphone in front of him and he's Superman."

But Rance Allen was an affable, endearing, and charming superstar, with an in-person shyness that contrasted sharply with what many people saw on the stage or in his video performances, with his fiery vocals and lion-like roar.

"He was a very humble, quiet guy who had these amazing talents," Steve Allen said. "He never flaunted his gifts."

Rance Allen regularly made time for fans, stopping for countless photographs and autographs throughout his life and career. "He never turned anyone away," Steve Allen said. "He just had a big heart."

He said his brother was every bit as passionate as a preacher as he was a singer.

Rance Allen actually began preaching at age 5, raised by a grandmother who taught him to read Scripture as soon as he was able to start reading.

"It took off from that," Steve Allen said of his brother.

Chris Byrd was Mr. Allen's music director at his church from 1985 to 1997, and continued on as the Rance Allen Group's producer, songwriter, music director, and as a keyboardist.

He said Mr. Allen was a mentor and like a father to him.

"He kind of took me under his wing," Mr. Byrd, who has made several albums of his own, said. "He was very kind-hearted and approachable. Anyone could talk to him and approach him.

"Just being on stage with him was always exciting," Mr. Byrd said. "He wouldn't stop until he got the crowd."

Deborah Murphy, daughter of another Toledo music legend, the late jazz bassist Clifford Murphy, has for nearly 20 years been the choir director at Mr. Allen's church.

She said she will never forgot the love he showed her during the church's 9 a.m. service last Thanksgiving Day, hours after her father had died.

He saw her in the pews.

"C'mon up here," he said to her, motioning her to meet him up at the pulpit. He stopped the service to hug her and let the congregation show its love.

"I was heavy in the heart because I had just lost my dad," Ms. Murphy said. "I got to release that. I'll never forget that particular moment. I'm going to miss him so dearly."

Ms. Murphy called Mr. Allen "the kindest, sweetest, most down-to-earth person I've ever met."

"It seems funny to say this, but to me he was kind of a shy person," she said. "Once he gets on stage to sing or once he begins to preach, it's like two different people. He explodes on stage."

Mr. Allen sang at Clifford Murphy's funeral in 2019 and the funeral of Mr. Murphy's wife, Lillian Adams, in 2005, according to Mr. Murphy's grandson, Shaim Hampton, senior pastor at Body of Christ Fellowship on Bancroft Street.

"He challenged me as a musician to broaden my musical talent," said the Rev. Hampton, who sings and plays guitar. "Of course I had my grandfather's influence. But there were people like [Rance Allen]. To me, he was a superstar. His voice was just unmatched."

Local blues aficionado John Rockwood, who had recorded Mr. Allen on the local Blue Suit label, broke down crying upon hearing news of Mr. Allen's death. He said Mr. Allen's early records on the legendary Stax Records label out of Memphis are unmatched.

"I used to go to his church, which is off Nebraska. He was so uplifting," Mr. Rockwood said. "It's so sad. Rance's music will live on forever."

He said Mr. Allen's gospel legacy is akin to the jazz legacy left by former Toledoan Jon Hendricks.

"In his church, you couldn't sit down when he got going. He'll find it [religion] in you," Mr. Rockwood said. "He was a treasure in Toledo, a star. There are no replacements for people like that."

Local blues legend Ramona Collins, a former president of the Toledo Jazz Society, said she became aware of Mr. Allen in 1975.

"People loved Rance Allen. From the moment he hit the stage, you could tell you were in for something. I can't tell you how many people are mourning his loss," Ms. Collins said. "He was a pro. He was an entertainer, too.

Other local musicians like Aayan Naim of The Good, The Bad & The Blues said Mr. Allen greatly influenced their careers.

"He was a true man of honor in every sense of the word," Mr. Naim said, counting Mr. Allen as a friend for the past 25 years whom he accompanied on many speaking and singing engagements.

One jazz singer, Kim Lynch Bueher, said the featured act of a jazz festival at International Park several years ago, national recording artist George Benson, walked from his downtown hotel and across the Martin Luther King, Jr., Bridge to see Mr. Allen perform.

She said Mr. Benson paid admission like all other attendees and sat unnoticed on the grass. Then-Mayor Jack Ford saw Mr. Benson there and watched the rest of Mr. Allen's show with him. After that, Mr. Benson went back to his hotel to prepare for his evening performance to close out the festival.

In 2011, he was consecrated a bishop in the Church of God In Christ and was prelate of the denomination's Michigan Northwest Harvest Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction.

"Bishop Allen's unique vocal ministry was an indispensable sound within the Church of God In Christ and Christendom," Bishop Robert G. Rudolph, Jr., the denomination's adjutant general, said in a statement. "His gift transcended the boundaries of musical genre as he remained a sought after personality called to perform on global venues."

The news of Bishop Allen's death brought a social media outpouring from fans and followers, including gospel singer CeCe Winans and disco-era hit-maker Gloria Gaynor.

He and the group recorded most recently for Tyscot Records.

The Rev. Prentiss Anderson, an associate minister at New Bethel church, said: "He was the father of contemporary gospel, he and the Rance Allen Group.

"It was something new, and not traditional," said the Rev. Anderson, who recorded for Motown in the 1960s. "In the church, a lot of the church people condemned it, but the world liked it. It caught on with the younger people."

With the Rance Allen Group, Bishop Allen contributed vocals, guitar, and keyboards. He also sang with other gospel names, including Ms. Winans and Kirk Franklin and - at the White House - Aretha Franklin. He sang on an album that featured Bob Dylan's gospel songs, and in 2018 performed on Snoop Dogg's gospel album.

In 2009 the Black Academy of Arts and Letters named him as one of the Great Men of Gospel. In 2005, he received a Trailblazer of Gospel Music Award from BMI, the music publishing company.

The Rance Allen Group were Stellar Award winners, received multiple Grammy nominations, and were 1998 inductees to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Born Nov. 19, 1948 as one of Thomas and Emma Pearl's 12 children, young Rance by age 9 was a traveling preacher in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. In 1978 he was ordained as an elder of the Church of God in Christ and began 6-1/2 years as associate pastor of that denomination's Holiness Temple in Monroe.

In 1985, the late Bishop Gilbert Patterson founded the New Bethel Church in Toledo and made Bishop Allen its pastor, where he remained until his death.

"He was a great man of God," said the Rev. Cedric Brock, pastor of Mount Nebo Baptist Church, who for several years led New Year's Eve Watch Night services with Bishop Allen. "He was able to get along with the rich man on the mountain and the poor child in the valley and made everybody feel comfortable."

He'd been a board member of the Neighborhood Improvement Foundation of Toledo Inc., a community organization dedicated to enhancing the inner city.

Survivors include his wife, the former Ellen Marie Groves, whom he married Dec. 1, 1970, and brothers Thomas and Steve Allen.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the family will hold a private memorial service, according to Bishop Rudolph's statement. A jurisdictional memorial service will be scheduled after restrictions on public gatherings are lifted. Arrangements are by the House of Day Funeral Service.