Biography

Florence Glenda Wilson Ballard was born and grew up in Detroit. By the time she turned 15, her family moved to the Brewster-Douglas housing project, and Florence attended Northeastern High School, where she met and became friends with Mary Wilson. Ballard had always wanted to be a singer and auditioned for the creation of a sister group of The Primes (later known as The Temptations). When she was approved, she recruited Mary, who in turn enlisted a Brewster neighbor, Diana Ross. They began singing and recording as The Primettes in 1959, but when they signed with Motown Records a year later, Florence selected The Supremes as their new name. Eventually Ross became the lead singer and Ballard grew dissatisfied with the group's management, she began drinking and was fired in 1967 for missing recording sessions and performances. She married her boyfriend Thomas Chapman and attempted a solo career with ABC Records. When her Motown settlement money was depleted by her lawyer, ABC also canceled her contract in 1970, after two unsuccessful singles and shelving an album, which was posthumously released in 2001. Ballard filed a lawsuit against Motown in 1971 for additional royalty payments she believed she was due to receive, but the case was dismissed and separated from her husband. She became an alcoholic while raising her three daughters on welfare in Detroit. Around 1974 Mary Wilson helped her to make a comeback. Ballard entered Henry Ford Hospital for rehab treatment and slowly started to recover. In early 1975, Florence received a monetary settlement from her former attorney's insurance company, reconciled with Chapman and decided to return to singing. She performed several times in 1975, but on February 22, 1976 she died from cardiac arrest caused by a coronary thrombosis, at the age of 32.