Florence Ballard while she was on maternity leave. Before the release of their 1962 debut album, "Meet the Supremes", Barbara Martin, who had replaced Betty McGlown a year before they signed to Motown, left the group. Ballard, Ross and Wilson remained a trio. After the hit success of 1963's "When the Love Light Starts Shining Through His Eyes", Diana Ross became the group's lead singer. In the spring of 1964, the group released "Where Did Our Love Go", which became their first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, paving the way for ten number-one hits recorded by Ross, Ballard and Wilson
Florence Ballard The rape occurred in an empty parking lot off Woodward Avenue. Ballard responded by secluding herself in her house refusing to come outside, which worried her groupmates. Weeks later, Ballard told Wilson and Ross what had happened. Though Ross and Wilson were sympathetic, they were also confused because Ballard was considered to be strong-willed and unflappable. Both Wilson and Jesse Green, an early boyfriend of Florence's, had described her as a "generally happy if somewhat mischievous and sassy teenager." Wilson believes that the incident heavily contributed to the more self-destructive aspects of Ballard's adult personality, like cynicism, pessimism, and fear