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
Florence Ballard next year Jesse Lambert Ballard died of cancer. Named "Blondie" and "Flo" by family and friends, Ballard attended Northeastern High School and was coached vocally by Abraham Silver. Ballard met future singing partner Mary Wilson during a middle-school talent show and they became friends while attending Northeastern High. From an early age, Ballard aspired to be a singer and agreed to audition for a spot on a sister group of the local Detroit attraction, the Primes, who were managed by Milton Jenkins. After she was accepted, Ballard recruited Mary Wilson to join Jenkins' group. Wilson, in turn, enlisted another neighbor,