Real name: Virginia Ann Sanders

Effective period / Period of releases: 1995

Born on June 12, 1945, in Pittsboro, Mississippi, and raised on a cotton farm in rural Mississippi, Ann grew up dreaming of the day she’d sing Gospel music all over the world. Right out of high school she began to realize that dream by securing a position with the legendary Speer Family, later marrying the man of her dreams and co-founding a group that helped shape the face of Gospel music we have today. She won the industry’s highest honor—the Dove Award—for Female Vocalist within a year of co-founding the Downings and went on to be inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.