Music
Florence Ballard
1943–1976 · singer
Detroit-born founding member of the Supremes who named the group, sang on nine No. 1 hits and died in her hometown at 32 as a comeback was beginning.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 32- Birth name
- Florence Glenda Ballard
- Also known as
- Flo · Blondie
- Detroit years
- 1943–1976
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Ballard was born in Detroit, one of more than a dozen children of parents who had come north in the Great Migration. By her mid-teens the family had settled in the Brewster-Douglass housing projects, where she and Mary Wilson, whom she had met at a school talent show, joined Diana Ross and Betty McGlown in the Primettes, a sister act to the Primes. The group sang at talent shows and school parties, signed with Motown in 1961 after Ballard picked the name "Supremes" from a list, and went on to nine No. 1 hits with her in the lineup. Motown dismissed her in 1967, and after a failed solo deal with ABC Records she struggled with poverty and depression in Detroit. She began a comeback with a concert at Ford Auditorium in June 1975, but died of a heart attack in a Detroit hospital in February 1976. Her funeral at New Bethel Baptist Church drew an overflow crowd, and she is buried at Detroit Memorial Park East in Warren.
Highlights
- Co-founded the Primettes, which became the Supremes
- Chose the name "Supremes" in 1961
- Sang on 16 top-40 singles, including nine No. 1 hits
- First woman inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1988)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 6
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Lived here · late 1950s–1960s
Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects
Demolished
Public housing complex where her family settled when she was about 15 and where the Primettes took shape; demolished in stages between 1991 and 2014.
Studied here · late 1950s
Northeastern High School
Demolished · 1982
East-side high school she attended with Mary Wilson; closed in 1982 and later demolished.
Recorded here · 1960–1967
Motown Museum
Motown's studio, where the Supremes auditioned and recorded their hits with her; now the Motown Museum.
Performed here · 1975
Ford Auditorium
Demolished · 1956–1989
Riverfront concert hall where she gave her first concert in more than five years on June 25, 1975; closed in 1989 and demolished in 2011.
Related place · 1976
New Bethel Baptist Church
Rev. C. L. Franklin's church, where her funeral on February 27, 1976, drew an overflow crowd and fellow Motown stars.
Buried here · 1976–
Detroit Memorial Park East
Cemetery in Warren where she is buried (Section G).