Florence Ballard

Florence Glenda Chapman (née Ballard; June 30, 1943 – February 22, 1976) was an American singer and a founding member of the Motown vocal female group the Supremes. She sang on 16 top 40 singles with the group, including nine number-one hits. After being removed from the Supremes in 1967, Ballard tried an unsuccessful solo career with ABC Records, before she was dropped from the label at the end of the decade. After struggling with alcoholism, depression and poverty for several years, she was in the midst of a musical comeback when she died of a heart attack in February 1976 at the age of 32. Ballard's death was considered by one critic as "one of rock's greatest tragedies". Ballard was the first woman posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes in 1988.

Florence Glenda Ballard was born in Detroit, Michigan on June 30, 1943 to Lurlee (née Wilson) and Jesse Ballard, as the eighth of 13 children or ninth of 15 children. Her siblings were Bertie, Cornell, Jesse, Jr., Gilbert, Geraldine, Barbara, Maxine, Billy, Calvin, Pat, Linda and Roy. Her mother came from Rosetta, Mississippi. Her brother Roy was killed by a drunk driver when he was three, and her mother gave birth to twins who died at 5 months old and a daughter who died in infancy. Her father was born Jesse Lambert in Bessemer, Alabama; after his grandmother was shot and killed, he was adopted by the Ballard family. Jesse Ballard left his adoptive parents at 13 and soon engaged in an affair with Florence's mother Lurlee, who was only 14, in Rosetta. The Ballards moved to Detroit in 1929 as part of the Great Migration. Jesse worked at General Motors. Jesse, an amateur musician, helped inspire Florence's interest in singing; he taught songs to her, accompanying her on guitar. Financial difficulties forced the Ballard family to move to different Detroit neighborhoods; by the time Florence turned 15 they had settled at the city's Brewster-Douglass housing projects, and the next year Jesse Lambert Ballard died of cancer.

Named "Blondie" and "Flo" by family and friends, Ballard attended Northeastern High School and was coached vocally by Abraham Silver. Ballard met future singing partner Mary Wilson during a middle-school talent show and they became friends while attending Northeastern High. From an early age, Ballard aspired to be a singer and agreed to audition for a spot in the sister group and local Detroit attraction, the Primes, who were managed by Milton Jenkins. After being accepted, Ballard recruited Mary Wilson to join Jenkins' group. Paul Williams of The Primes (who would later evolve into The Temptations), in turn, enlisted another neighbor, Diana Ross, then going by "Diane". Betty McGlown completed the original lineup and Jenkins named them "The Primettes". The group performed at talent showcases and at school parties before auditioning for Motown Records in 1960. Berry Gordy, head of Motown, advised the group to graduate from high school before auditioning again. Ballard eventually dropped out of high school though her groupmates graduated.

In 1960, Ballard was allegedly raped at knifepoint by local high-school basketball player Reggie Harding after leaving a sock hop at Detroit's Graystone Ballroom (she had arrived with her brother, but they lost track of each other). The rape occurred in an empty parking lot off Woodward Avenue. Ballard reacted by secluding herself in her house and refusing to come outside, which worried her groupmates. Weeks later, Ballard told Wilson and Ross what had happened and they were sympathetic. Both Wilson and Jesse Green, an early boyfriend of Florence's, had described her as a "generally happy if somewhat mischievous and sassy teenager." Wilson believes that the incident heavily contributed to the self-destructive aspects of Ballard's adult personality, like cynicism, pessimism and fear and distrust of others, but the rape was never mentioned again.

Later in 1960, the Primettes signed a contract with Lu Pine Records, issuing two songs that failed to perform well. During that year, they kept pursuing a Motown contract and agreed to do anything that was required, including adding handclaps and vocal backgrounds. By the end of the year, Berry Gordy agreed to have the group record songs in the studio. In early 1961, Gordy agreed to sign them on the condition they change their name. Janie Bradford approached Ballard with a list of names to choose from before Ballard chose "Supremes". The other members were displeased when they heard the new name. Diana Ross worried they would be mistaken for a male vocal group, but Gordy agreed to sign them under that name on January 15, 1961.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.