Florence Ballard 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 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 ninth of fifteen children. Her siblings were Bertie, Cornell, Jesse, Jr., Gilbert, Geraldine, Barbara, Maxine, Billy, Calvin, Pat, Linda and Roy. Her mother was a resident of Rosetta, Mississippi. Her father was born Jesse Lambert 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