By Wesley Harris
Claiborne Parish Library Historian
One of the largest and best known salsa companies in the world has its roots in north Louisiana.
Born of Claiborne Parish stock, raised in Lincoln Parish, and taught to be an entrepreneur in Ouachita, David Earl Pace found success with his Pace Picante Sauce, “the original picante.” His parents, Amos Gideon “Gid” Pace and Effie Fomby Pace were the second generation of their respective families to live near Athens in Claiborne Parish. Gid engaged in a host of endeavors, from farming and timber to land speculation.
Tragedy befell many of the Pace children. The firstborn, Selwynne, lived only 24 days. His sister Camille, died at age eight. Their brother Amos Paul Pace lies entombed within the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, a victim of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. His widow, Connie Manning Pace, enlisted in the Navy and served as an aviation machinist’s mate. The elder brother, James Ward Pace, died on a hunting trip in 1953. He drowned while trying to use a self-operated ferry and his jeep fell into a north Louisiana bayou. Only David Earl (79) and Imogene (81) lived into their senior years.
Gid always seemed to look for something better for his family. After Selwynne and Camille died, the Pace family moved to Simsboro in Lincoln Parish sometime between 1910 and 1914 to try their fortunes. David and Amos were born there.
By 1920, the family had moved on to Ouachita Parish. Gid first operated a produce and egg business in West Monroe. Gid moved into making syrup. Not just syrup but at least 13 varieties of syrup from Sunny Gold Corn & Cane Syrup that sold for 40 cents to Pace’s Grade “A,” the company’s most expensive at $1 each.
The company peddled its products across north Louisiana and delivered it to stores in Mississippi and southern Arkansas. Gid experienced a problem every entrepreneur envies—the company constantly outgrew its facilities. He moved his manufacturing plant several times to progressively larger buildings to meet demand.
David Earl learned the process of experimenting with recipes and developing new products. With the help of David and James, Gid opened his final location for the Pace Syrup Company about six miles west of West Monroe just off U.S. 80.
After working for the family syrup business, playing football at Tulane, and serving as a pilot in World War II, David settled down in San Antonio, Texas, the home of his wife Margaret. There he continued to improve an old family recipe for the perfect salsa.
Pace began his own food business of bottled syrups as well as jellies and jams. The products were made, packed, and shipped out of a small back room of a liquor store David and Margaret rented. Over time, he expanded the business to a variety of other condiments. In 1947 he decided the real “syrup of the Southwest” was a Mexican salsa or sauce.
Starting with a basic recipe, he experimented with different blends of ingredients. He tested the results on golf buddies before settling on one mix of jalapeños, onions and tomatoes. He named his creation “picante sauce,” after the Spanish for “piquant,” meaning “flavorful” or “spicy.” It was truly the original picante sauce since no picante sauce existed before David Pace coined the term.
While continuing to sell some 58 assorted condiments, he continued modifying his picante sauce formula for the better part of a decade. As demand grew, Pace dropped the rest of the company’s lines and focused on the Picante sauce. Using a $150,000 loan from Margaret’s mother, the couple expanded and built their production facility in 1951.
Pace Foods remained a family-owned company until it was sold in 1994, a year after David’s death, to the Campbell Soup Company for $1 billion. Campbell changed little of the operation, retaining Pace’s 471 employees. The sauce is still made in Texas, now by 900 Campbell employees.