Why Diana Ross Was Booed At An Ex-Supreme's Funeral

Publish date: 2024-04-29

Per Biography, Florence Ballard released two solo singles that both failed to chart and the ABC recording label shelved her record. She married a man named Thomas Chapman and the couple had three daughters before separating for a time, at which point Ballard went on public assistance. In 1975, Ballard's life took a positive turn again when she won an insurance settlement, reconciled with Chapman, and began performing again by making an appearance at a concert that also featured the group Deadly Nightshade (via Ann Arbor District Library). However, in February 1976 she was admitted to the hospital and died a day later from a blood clot in an artery at just 32 years old. 

According to Peter Benjaminson's 2009 book "The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard," Ballard's funeral took place at Detroit's New Bethel Baptist Church and attracted over 5,000 people, who crowded onto the streets and sidewalk outside the church. It's unknown if Diana Ross was even invited to the funeral in the first place, but she arrived at the ceremony in a limousine, making a grand entrance that was booed by several assembled mourners. Ross' own mother was present as her daughter arrived and reportedly looked very upset with the public's negative reaction. Ross joined Ballard's family in the front pew, sitting directly beside Thomas Chapman, at which point she took his youngest daughter, Lisa, from him and sat the child on her own lap. A photographer took a picture of Ross and little Lisa and published it, making it one of the only publicly available images from the funeral.

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