Florence Ballard Biography (1943–1976)
Singer Florence Ballard formed The Supremes in 1961 with childhood friends Mary Wilson and Diana Ross. She sang on 16 different Top 40 hits.
Who Was Florence Ballard?
Singer Florence Ballard became famous in the 1960s as a member of The Supremes, a group which she started with childhood friends Mary Wilson and Diana Ross. She sang on 16 different Top 40 hits but left the group in 1967 after a dispute with Motown Records. She died on February 22, 1976 in Detroit, Michigan at only 32 years old.
Early Life and Career
Florence Ballard was born in Detroit, Michigan, on June 30, 1943. The ninth in a household of many children, Ballard and her large family moved around frequently among different public housing projects before finally settling down in the Brewster-Douglass Projects in 1958. Ballard participated in the church choir from an early age. Lovingly referred to as "Blondie" because of her auburn hair and mixed racial heritage, Ballard would befriend a neighborhood girl named Mary Wilson after competing against her in several local talent shows.
Milton Jenkins of The Primes (a singing group which would later become The Temptations) was recruiting girls to audition for an all-female quartet when he became impressed by Ballard's singing style at a talent show. Having outdone herself at the audition, Ballard was commissioned by Jenkins to find other members to form The Primes' new sister group, The Primettes. Ballard immediately invited her good friend Mary Wilson, who in turn recruited another neighborhood pal, Diane Earle, later known as Diana Ross. Betty McGlown soon completed the quartet. (McGlown would leave the group in 1962 and was replaced by Barbara Martin. When Martin also quit the group, Ballard, Wilson and Ross decided it would remain a trio.
Florence Ballard Biography (1943–1976)
https://www.biography.com/musician/florenc...
Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
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