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
Ballard News-Tribune Ballard News-Tribune The Ballard News-Tribune is a weekly newspaper serving the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1891 and has a circulation of 9,500. It is one of the Robinson Newspapers, a group of newspapers in the Seattle-Tacoma area which includes the "West Seattle Herald", "White Center News", "Highline Times", "Des Moines News", "SeaTac News", and "Federal Way News". It offers local news coverage from Seattle to north Tacoma. On August 21, 2013, it was announced that the paper, along with the "West Seattle Herald", "White Center News", and "Highline Times", would be combined into "The Westside