Florence Ballard contains the line "Remember the sadness in Florence Ballard's eyes". On his 2006 album "Hip Hop is Dead", hip-hop artist Nas mentions the Ballard/Ross rivalry in his song "Blunt Ashes": ""When Flo from the Supremes died/Diana Ross cried/Many people said that she was laughing inside."" In his short story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band", Stephen King, through the late disc jockey Alan Freed, includes Ballard as one of the deceased artists who performs in a town called "Rock and Roll Heaven". "Dreamgirls", a 1981 Broadway musical, chronicles a fictional group called "The Dreams," and a number
Pat Ballard Pat Ballard Pat Ballard, born Francis Drake Ballard (June 19, 1899 – October 26, 1960), was an American songwriter, producer, music editor and author. He was born in Troy, Pennsylvania, to Frank Ballard, a jeweller-optician, and Lucille, a soprano. He was the great-great-grandson of Orrin P. Ballard, one of the pioneers of the region. He was married to Hilda Gramlich, a dress designer. He died of a cardiac arrest at the Medical Arts Centre in New York City, New York, in 1960. He composed "Mr. Sandman" and "(Oh Baby Mine) I Get So Lonely". He was a member of the