Entertainment, Music - Marine Corps Times

Baseball blessings: Sheffield family boasts a gospel star

When the Tigers acquired slugger Gary Sheffield last winter, Detroit got more than one of baseball’s best players. The city got one of gospel music’s best voices.

When she learned the Detroit Tigers had signed her husband, DeLeon Richards-Sheffield says, it felt like destiny calling. She has been performing gospel music since she was 5 and, at 9, was the youngest person ever nominated for a Grammy.

The family views it as almost divine-like that she ended up in the city considered to be the gospel music capital of the world, the city responsible for birthing some of the greatest singers and producers and the city that served as the backdrop for some of the best-selling gospel music of all time.

“I just got the phone call, and my husband said, ‘Well what do you think of Detroit?’ And I said, ‘Let’s do it,’ ” Richards-Sheffield says. “We were like, well, maybe this is the big blessing in disguise.”

It had been six years since her last album release. Marriage, having children and rooting for her husband during baseball playoffs dominated her life.

Now that she’s in a stronghold of gospel music, she’s ready to become the kind of superstar in her arena that her husband is in his.

In Detroit, she will be able to reconnect with people like the Clark Sisters, who knew her when she was known around the country as the “young gospel sensation.” Her latest album, “Here In Me,” is available online at www.deleonmusic.com.

The Gospel Music Workshop of America Award of Excellence winner and Stellar Award-nominated singer has shared the stage with such powerhouses as Patti LaBelle, Shirley Caesar, the Winans and Kirk Franklin. CeCe Winans sang at Richard’s-Sheffield’s 1999 wedding to Sheffield.

“I’ve worked with quite a few people out of Detroit, and I look forward to maximizing that in the next few years, to hooking up with some really great artists,” says Richards-Sheffield, who has worked with producer Fred Hammond.

A spiritual ambassador

Richards-Sheffield is running late on a recent afternoon. She’s been in Oakland County setting up a book signing that her husband will have after that day’s Tigers game, and she misses his first crack at bat.

She arrives in front of her suite with 4-year-old son, Jaden, in tow (she has another son, Noah, 10 months), a fan of suite tickets in her hand. The door is locked, and she can’t find anyone to let her inside.

Someone with several rings of keys walks by, and she asks if he’d let her into the suite.

“How do I know this is your suite?” he asks, clearly unaware of who she is.

“Oh, these are my tickets for it,” she politely says, showing him her tickets.

He nods and lets her in.

There’s not a glimpse of pretentiousness about Richards-Sheffield.

Richards-Sheffield is quite humble and rather good-natured, coming from her quick path to fame in the gospel music world.

Her mother, Debbie, wanted to make sure her daughter always had her feet on the ground. When Richards-Sheffield first signed to Word records in 1983, she became the youngest person — she was 7 — to be signed to a gospel label. The label was home to Christian music powerhouses Amy Grant, Shirley Caesar and the Mighty Clouds of Joy, among others.

“My mother kept it very real,” she says. “When I was out singing and going to the Grammy Awards or being in front of the camera, I still went to regular school. She kept me grounded.”

She started off performing on large stages. She was 5 when she performed before 20,000 people at a Chicago gospel festival. That led to many other opportunities including performing for President Reagan. She has toured worldwide, including in Japan as a kindergartner and opening for the Mighty Clouds of Joy.

“She really loves the Lord. She’s a good ambassador for the body of Christ. Not everybody lives what they sing about,” says Larry Robinson, owner of God’s World, a gospel music record shop on Detroit’s west side. Robinson first met Richards-Sheffield when she was getting started.

“I met her when she was young at the Chicago gospel fest, and they had a special reception for guests, and my wife and I and my oldest son and she and her mother shared a table. She’s got a nice voice, but we were so impressed at her young age and her dedication to her field. That’s what struck me more than anything else. It was the life she was living.”

Richards-Sheffield has released albums, DVDs and live concert footage over the years. She’s performed at showcases that have been put on by gospel’s Bobby Jones, singing to stadium-size crowds. She’s also dabbled in television, acting in the 1990 TV series “Brewster Place.”

Things made possible in faith

Her new album, Richards-Sheffield says, is personal, largely because, for the first time in her career, she was in control. She teamed up with producer Stanley Brown. Together, they created what she considers to be her best work, a journal-like entry of relatable real-life situations and how, through faith, all things are possible.

“This particular project, it’s like I’m not listening to me. It’s like I’m listening to somebody else. It really does minister back to me,” she says. “God allowed me to do this project, and it’s like it’s him that I’m listening to.”