Florence Ballard her suit. Angered, Gordy ordered her to return to Detroit, and Birdsong officially replaced her, abruptly ending her tenure with the Supremes. It had been decided as early as May that Birdsong would be Ballard's official replacement once Birdsong's contract with the Bluebelles was bought out. In August 1967, the "Detroit Free Press" reported that Ballard had taken a temporary leave of absence from the group due to "exhaustion". Ballard eventually married her boyfriend, Thomas Chapman, on February 29, 1968. A week earlier, on February 22, Ballard and Motown negotiated to have Ballard released from the label. Her attorney in
Roberta A. Ballard Ballard spent fifteen years educating herself in a variety of places. From 1957-1961 she was at Earlham College in Richmond, IN, AB. Ballard went on from 1965-1967 receiving her MD at the University of Chicago, School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. Roberta did a Pediatrics Internship from 1965-1967 at the University of Chicago Hospital in Chicago, IL. She would also do a Pediatrics Residency there from 1966-1967. Ballard would then go to Stanford University, Palo, Alto, CA from 1967-1968 doing another Pediatrics Residency. She would then travel to Washington, DC to do a Neonatology Fellowship at George Washington University Hospital