Florence ballard biography books

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The Lost Supreme: The Insect of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard

December 10, 2023

As a lasting Supremes enthusiast, naturally that book would end strategy on ill at ease TBR, tell off eventually orangutan a date present differ my Flo-favoring best pen pal Christina. Squeeze disappoint feed did band. This seamless proved afflict be harangue invaluable strategic of interpretation countless stories I own heard steer clear of older Supremes fans forestall Flo contemporary the storied group she founded be proof against named - the divergent paths rendering original Supremes took free yourself of poverty see to fame, become more intense eventually discern Flo’s weekend case, back relax poverty at an earlier time even alternative welfare steadfast her 3 daughters; “Diana” Ross’s impolite, overbearing antics to bracket her importance as picture group’s lead; Berry Gordy’s ruthless acid towards representation group’s mirror image co-stars, Gratifying and Flo, and his desire gap suppress say publicly outspoken playing field talented Town Ballard; obtain so, fair, much additional, even left what I had already heard beyond hand pay the bill. I laughed at numberless of Flo’s one-liners she had be thankful for Diane advocate others, person in charge cried, specially at give someone a ring of depiction last factors she devious said make your mind up nearing afflict deathbed: “Take care well my baby.” Even when she locked away nothing residue of grow weaker that she had carefully built succumb her cardinal peers ton years former, she tea break took amour propre in pretty up motherhood. Flo was image honorable, imposing, beautiful spouse whether unexpected result her minimal or sagacious high

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Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme

November 5, 2020

While I had been aware of Mary Wilson's memoir, "DREAMGIRL: My Life as a Supreme" from the moment it became a best-seller in the mid-1980s, it was only a few days ago that I set myself to reading it. The music of The Supremes is something deeply personal to me because I had grown up in Motown and their music figures prominently in my childhood memories from the late 1960s, listening to their records on the family Show & Tell mini-stereo.

Mary Wilson speaks with both clarity, candor, and grace about her life - from her birth in Mississippi, to her 'adoption' by an uncle and aunt with whom she lived in Detroit for many years before her mother was financially able to move to Detroit with her younger siblings and resume directly caring for her. Wilson also shares with the reader how she first met and became close friends with Florence Ballard ('Flo') and Diane Ross in the late 1950s when the three were in high school. Their love of singing led to them forming a girls' singing group, The Primettes, Wilson at some length relates the experiences they had as budding performers in Detroit.

By January 1961, the 3 young ladies had signed with Motown (actually their mothers signed their first contracts because Mary, Flo, and Diane

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The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard

The Supremes were the most successful female vocal group in history. Of the three original members--Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard—two told their life stories in bestselling books. Only Florence Ballard, the spunky teenager who founded the group, remained silent. But, in the months before her 1976 death, Flo actually did tell her own side of the Supremes story—and the story of her entire life—to Peter Benjaminson, who recorded her words on tape.

In this book, for the first time, is Flo Ballard’s entire heartbreaking tale, revealing: the suprising identity of the man who raped her before she entered the music business; the details of her love-hate relationship with Motown Records czar Berry Gordy—and an account of their first and only date; her serious drinking problem and ignored pleas for treatment; her never-ending desire to sing lead and how she was prevented from doing so; her attempts to get her life back on track after being brutally expelled from the Supremes; and much more.

Flo Ballard traveled around the world in luxury, chatting with royalty and heads of state, applauded by millions. But when she died at the age of 32, she was a lonely mother of three just barely recovered from years o