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. 0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:07 AM Page 395EPILOGUE: WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO? 395If there was one refuge that brought her calm, it wasn t the newhouse but the old one she d had to abandon.Refusing to let go, she dreturn there night after night, let herself into the dark and shutteredhouse, light a candle and go from room to room checking each andmaking notes about how she d decorate it when she d come back thereto live.Sometimes she d awaken the kids, dress and put them in theback of the Cadillac, and drive them there, where she d put on a show.Making a grand entrance out the door, she d stand on the stage of thefront porch, sing songs as the kids sat on the freezing ground, take herbows, then drive home.At these moments, she was Flo the Supreme again.Tony Tucker re-membered that when she was Flo and someone showed her pity, such aswhen someone remarked that her friends should stick by her, she d goballistic. I don t need no motherfuckin -body to stick by me! shescowled. I m Flo Ballard! I m a Supreme! Get out of the way, I got ashow to do! For all the delusions, though, Flo actually did get some offers to singagain, and she was seemingly getting used to the idea, mentioning that big women were in, like Aretha and Roberta Flack; and her time wasnow.Suddenly she was dieting, rehearsing her singing in a new base-ment studio she d built.Her doctor had diagnosed her with hyperten-sion and she was taking medication for it, though she didn t realize thatthe other pills she kept taking elevated her blood pressure all over again.It was all too much for her heart.In early February 1976, she had aphone conversation with Mae Atkins, during which she slurred herwords and sounded drunk. I don t feel well, she complained. I have apain in my chest. Mae told her to get to a hospital, but Flo shrugged itoff.Then, going back to the apartment to visit Lurlee and Maxine, shekept drinking ice water, saying that I m hot inside.I can t get rid ofthis hot feeling. Flo always was a hypochondriac so it didn t seem causefor alarm.Two weeks later, at around 3 A.M.on the morning of February 21,Flo called Lurlee and said she couldn t sleep, that she was having trou-ble breathing. Mama, she said, if anything happens to me, I wantyou to keep the children. Lurlee told her she was talking crazy and togo back to bed.Tommy was out working overnight, so she was alone inher room, but her labored breathing so worried her daughter Nicole,now 8, that she called Lurlee, who told her the same thing she had Flo,that there was no cause to worry.At around 10, Tommy came home, opened the bedroom door, andin horror saw Flo lying on the cold floor in her bedclothes, unable to 0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:07 AM Page 396396 THE SUPREMESmove her lower body.She could only croak in a hoarse whisper, I can tmove my legs. Tommy and the kids lifted her onto a sofa and he calledfor an ambulance.Taken to Mount Carmel Mercy Hospital, she stillhad no feeling in her legs and was put in a bed in the emergency wardfor observation.She was on her back for the entire day.The doctors didtests but had little to say as family members drifted in and out.WhenMaxine got to her bedside, Flo was clearly worried. I got to be able totake care of my kids, she struggled to say.Maxine would later say that as she looked at her sister, she knew thatFlo was taking her last breaths.But when Flo made it into the night,the family went home, saying they d be back the next morning.Beforethey could, early on the morning of the 22nd, a blood clot formed inFlo s coronary artery.At around 9 A.M., her heart finally gave up.FloBallard was pronounced dead.She was 32 years old.The death of Blondie Ballard caused great and genuine sadness atMotown.When someone phoned Mary to tell her, she stood helpless,phone in hand, repeating, I knew it.I knew it. She and Rossmade immediate plans to fly to Detroit for the funeral.Gordy didn t,but he did insist upon paying for the funeral, which was treated by Mo-town as a chance to purge, or at least gauze over, old guilts by spendinga lot of money on a woman Gordy had recently hung up on when sheasked for a few bucks.And if this became an exemplar of how wellMotown took care of its own at the same time that it could publicize it-self and some of its top acts, well, as Gordy would put it, That didn thurt either. The service at the Reverend C.L.Franklin s New Bethel Church onFebruary 24 was planned as meticulously as a Supremes concert in LasVegas.Flowers were everywhere, with big wreaths and floral arrange-ments wrapped in banners identifying Motown acts, and one readingjust MOTOWN, which while meant to articulate the personal trib-ute of each act and the company in general seemed more like those oldBillboard ads with Motown artists in bubbles.Some had messages, suchas I LOVE YOU.DIANA and GOODBYE BLONDIE, whichwas from Gordy but didn t have his name on it, possibly because he 0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:07 AM Page 397EPILOGUE: WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO? 397knew how Ballard fans now felt about him.Curiously or perhapsnot there was no wreath with Mary Wilson s name.The widower Chapman, hit hard by Flo s death, seemed a little outof his mind as well, telling people he was in charge, having allowed Gordy to pay for the funeral and that he had ordered him to do theright thing for Flo.And he did in fact overrule the planners intentionto dress Flo in the open coffin in a Supremes gown; instead, she was putin a knee-length powder-blue robe although through it one could seethe black and blue leg bruises that he d inflicted.It would be perhaps the biggest funeral ever seen in Detroit, whichsurely would have elicited one of Flo s sassy one-liners since so few hadwanted to know her in her declining years.On that day, the church wasstuffed with 2,500 people, many of whom came with cameras to cap-ture the arrival of the VIPs.Maxine Jenkins called it all a circus and a showcase for celebrities, and outside there were twice as many peoplebehind flimsy police barricades and the crowds would lurch forwardwhen each limousine pulled up, forcing cops to drag people away andclear the way into church, with each celebrity cheered as if at a concert.When Diana emerged from her limo in a dignified black suit,cheers mixed with boos and catcalls Hope you re happy now, Diana,you did this to Flo! rang out one loud voice, framing a narrative thatwould haunt her from now on.Regally ignoring the abuse, shielded bytwo bodyguards, she was ushered inside and, as planned, right past theother celebrities and guests waiting in line to be seated. It was strange, recalls Ray Gibson, who came in from L.A. All ofus came through the side door.Mary, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops.But Diana came in from the top of the stairs in the back.She made hergrand entrance as only Diana can.But did she have to do it on Flo-rence s day? Couldn t she let Florence have the spotlight just this once? The word upstage was used a lot about Ross that day, and foryears later when people spoke of the funeral.Taken straight to the frontpew next to Chapman and the Ballard daughters, she could be heardscreaming in grief and appeared faint in the hot and stifling church,prompting others to fan her
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