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
11277 Ballard 11277 Ballard 11277 Ballard, provisional designation "", is a Phocaea asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 8 October 1988, by American astronomer couple Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California. The assumed S-type asteroid has a rotation period of at least 10 hours. It was named for American marine scientist Robert Ballard. "Ballard" is a member of the Phocaea family (). It orbits the Sun in the inner asteroid belt at a distance of 1.83–2.98 AU once every 3 years and 9 months (1,360 days; semi-major axis