Was Shirley Caesar, a Grammy award-winning gospel singer and celebrated pastor, deceased as of May 9, 2023? No, that's not true: Caesar made at least one public appearance after May 9, 2023. There is also no indication that her health was failing at the time of writing.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) posted on YouTube on May 9, 2023. The video, which was more than nine minutes long, was titled:
The family is very sad, Shirley Caesar just passed away after a long battle with cancer
This is how the video looked on YouTube at the time of writing:
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Wed May 17 14:49:45 2023 UTC)
There is no evidence that Caesar, who is 84 years old at the time of writing, died sometime around May 9, 2023. Her official website has not been updated to reflect any significant changes in her health. Her official social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube also did not publish any information about her dying.
A livestream on Caesar's official Facebook page shows that she performed on May 14, 2023, in Atlanta for a Mother's Day concert. At the time of writing, she also had appearances planned for late May 2023 and early June 2023, contradicting the implication that her health has gotten in the way of her career.
Lead Stories also could not find evidence that Caesar ever publicly revealed a cancer diagnosis.
The YouTube channel that posted the claim, Celebrity Edition, has posted several false videos (here, here and here) about Caesar's supposed death.
Lead Stories regularly debunks celebrity death hoaxes. Some of those fact checks can be found here.
