Rosalind Ashford helped the group to distinguish themselves from the other girl groups in the label including the pop-oriented Marvelettes and the doo-wop-influenced Supremes with a rougher, brassier gospel-influenced sound. Reeves was a brassy alto while Annette was a deep contralto, and Rosalind was a high soprano. Like the Supremes' Florence Ballard, the Marvelettes' Wanda Rogers and The Four Tops' Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Ashford registered as the high background vocal in Vandellas records. After "Quicksand" gave the group a third top forty pop hit, Beard left to start a family with her new spouse. Reeves recruited a former member of The Velvelettes,
Alice R. Ballard All this time, she was bonding with these little pod forms as her ideas for future forms to be made in clay percolated. The Wall Pod series eventually became the result of this lengthy but rich process.” She received her BS degree in design and MFA in painting from the University of Michigan. From 1974 to 2001 she attended workshops at the Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina. Her work is in the permanent collections of: Alice R. Ballard Alice R. Ballard. (born June 16, 1945, Florence, South Carolina) is an American ceramicist based in Greenville, South Carolina. Much