In Black America; A Tribute To Mary Wilson

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. We were then like I think Diane was 13, I was 13, Florence me I've been 13 and a half. She was 6 months older than us right and so we actually we rehearsed with Eddie and Paul as the Primes and for maybe a couple of weeks there was only a couple of weeks and and pretty soon we started doing local dates at the Gold Coast Theatre in Detroit, the Fox Theatre, just little things that we weren't recording and we had a guitarist who became who later became the Miracles guitarist, Mark Tarf, but he was ours first so we did all these local records right and then we we were on the show with a lot of other recording artists so we said ourselves now we're 15 years old now we said

I said hmm maybe we should try to think of recordings. The late Mary Wilson co-founder of the legendary Supreme died on February 8th 2021 she was 76. We believe vocalist Diana Ross in founding member Florence Ballet and with Ballet's replacement Cindy Burson Wilson appeared on all 12 of the Supreme number one hits from 1964 to 1969. During that period the group chart had told of 16 top 10 pop singles 19 top 10 R&B singles six of them went to the top of the channel like many Motown artists Wilson, Diana Ross and Florence Ballet grew up in Detroit and were still in their teams when they were signed in 1961 by Barry Gordon to his young record label. In 1988 Wilson accepted prestigious lifetime achievement award on behalf of the Supreme from there inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1994 the Supreme received a star on the Hollywood Walker fame and in 1998 they were inducted into the vocal group Hall of Fame.

I'm Johnny O'Hanston Jr and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program a tribute to Mary Wilson co-founder of the Supremes in Black America. What happened was we were when we met Eddie and Paul I'm sorry I didn't say

that one of the other girls who was dating one of the guys Betty McLaughlin was there so she made up the four of us that same day we came the primates and we were four so Betty stayed with us for like a year I think she was a year and a half older than us she was a little older and she got married after that first year and after that we got another girl who was recommended by Melvin of the temptations they were they were oldest Williams and the distance still and so Melvin said I know a girl who would fit right in with you and her name is Barbara Barbara Martin and so Barbara joined us and for another year so we went to Motown we auditioned Motown and Barbara was there for that in fact Barbara was on our first album meet the Supremes she was on most of those songs and she was a supreme she had signed as a supreme so there were four Supremes people are

not aware of that Mary Wilson was a singer best-selling author motivational speaker businesswoman former U.S. culture ambassador mother and grandmother as a founding member of the Supremes she had a front row seat to the making of an American institution Motown records Wilson died on February 8th 2021 she was 76 as the world most famous female trio the Supremes recorded 12 number one hits from 1964 to 1969 growing up in Detroit Brewster project Wilson enjoyed a passion for singing performing at an elementary school talent show she met longtime friend and future groupmate Florence Ballard in 1959 the group was too young to sign with Motown and Barry Gordon suggests that they come back when they graduated high school two years later Barry McGlond Florence Ballard down in Ross and Mary Wilson officially became the Supremes in the spring of 2019 Wilson was on the U.T. Austin campus as part of the

Stumbling on race in America and the opening of the Motown 60 years of its real USA exhibit at the LBJ library grew up in Mississippi moved to you grew up in Mississippi then you grew up in Mississippi no I grew up in Detroit Michigan grew up in Detroit I was born born in Detroit St. Louis Chicago tells what was like by going up in Detroit well you know first of all Detroit was one of those cities that people migrated from the South my parents my they all you know so so when we when I grew up I was like five years old when I realized where I was right and it was great living in Detroit Michigan because Detroit was a great city and it's coming back to I got to let you know and everyone who's from Detroit it's coming back and so you know I grew up outside of Michigan outside of Detroit not in the sits in the middle there and so it was a suburbs by the Detroit River in which was very very it was a wonderful place

to grow up then when I finally moved in with my real mom because I was living there with my aunt uncle we had to move into the part projects for me it was kind of a step down because I had grown up you know outside of Detroit Michigan and we had our own home and my aunt and uncle had their car they had two jobs you know we were like really well off you know in the 40s and the 50s so when I had to move in with my mom however it was great because I met my brother and my sister and my mom my real mom and at first I was like you know I I felt kind of put down because my I felt adults lied to me about who I was but then in the projects in the Brewster projects in Detroit and coming there with my mom and my new brother and sister I found something that was joyful let's put that way all the people there were lots of people I wasn't used to all those people and everybody was singing in the streets and they were dancing you know

and it became not a put down for me it was like great because now I was really being with people and I enjoyed it that's when I met Florence and and and Diane and we started singing so it was kind of like I had two kind of lives you know one was that kind of quiet in the suburbs and the other was loud but it was fun in the projects now you and Florence hooked up prior to you all meeting Diane tell us about that relationship really well you know when when Florence and I met we both were in elementary school we all lived in the Brewster projects and Diane lived there too with her family however Florence and I went to the same elementary school and Diane was kind of went to another school so we didn't really know her and one day at school they said they're gonna have a little show and anyone who wanted to you know seeing in the show joined up well I never thought I was a singer however I was in every choir glee club whatever but I thought everybody woke up singing so I didn't know it was a talent it's what I'm saying anyway I had just seen Frankie Lyman and the

teenagers on some TV show and so when I signed up I said I'm gonna sing you know Frankie Lyman and the teenager song and I pantomime actually to their song I'm not a juvenile delinquent well on the same show now we're in the fifth grade on the same show Florence was on and I didn't know her either she just lived in the project you know there are thousands of people who live in progress or you don't you see people you don't know them so anyway she sings this song she comes up then she says and I'm like whoa she had such a huge beautiful voice and like she's only 12 or 13 too here we are so afterwards she and I got together and she says wow you had the crowd going you were really like and I said your voice is beautiful and we said everyone's starting these little groups let's let's let's you know if anyone asks us let's kind of remember each other and we walked on from school we became best friends next couple weeks Florence ran up to me and she said these two guys Eddie Kendrick and Paul Williams were putting a group together and her sister was dating their manager and they

asked her if she wanted to be a group and so in the meantime someone else was had asked Diana across the street so it all kind of happened simultaneously you know it wasn't like weeks or weeks before we met and so Diana said yes and we walked over to the guys apartment down by the flame show bar all of us the three of us and we talked about becoming friends that on that day and that's kind of how we got together how long were you all singing together prior to you are actually going to any audition well we you know we we were then like I think Diane was 13 I was 13 Florence may have been 13 and a half she was six bucks older than us right and so we actually we rehearsed with Eddie and Paul and as the primes and for maybe a couple of weeks it was only a couple of weeks and and pretty soon we started doing local dates at the Gold Coast Theatre in Detroit the Fox Theatre just little things we weren't recording and we had a guitarist who became who later became the Miracles guitarist Mara Tarpa

but he was always first so we did all these local record hops right and then we we were on the show with a lot of other recording artists so we said ourselves now we're 15 years old now we said ourselves hmm maybe we should try to think of recording and that's when we saw the Miracles on TV Claudette Robinson you know Robert Bobby Rogers and Pete Moore run white and so we said you know Diane I know smokey from a former neighborhood maybe I can ask him you know if he can listen to the group and we said okay good so we got it a call him up and do whatever and he set up an interview at Claudette's house Claudette Roberts house and we went over there Robinson I should say and they the Miracles listened to us and said oh you guys are really good they say your guitar is a good too and that's when we lost our guitars but anyway our audition was set up for Mr. Gordy and that's how we eventually ended up there but it that's another long story too you got to read my book to know the whole

story there was more than three the final three which is what was settled on who were the other I think two more primes of that before Diane Florence and yourself actually born a surprise what what happened was we were when we met Eddie and Paul I'm sorry I didn't say that one of the other girls who was dating one of the guys Betty McGlahn was there so she made up the four of us that same day we we came the primates and we were four so Betty stayed with us for like the year I think she was a year and a half older than us she was a little older and she got married after that first year and after that we got another girl who was recommended by Melvin of the temptations they were they were oldest Williams and the distance still and so Melvin said I know a girl who would fit writing with you and her name is Barbara Barbara Martin and so Barbara joined us and for another year so we went to Motown we auditioned at Motown and Barbara

was there for that in fact Barbara was on our first album meet the Supremes she was on most of those songs and she was a supreme she had signed as a supreme so there were four Supremes people I'm not aware of that all right now the Supremes were the greatest of all girl groups who can forget baby love you can't hurry love stop in the name of love and so many more in fact at one point they had five consecutive number one singles rivaling the Beatles in the height of Beatlemania please welcome to the stage one of the founding members of the Supremes Miss Mary Wilson and now they've been part you gotta see that again

stop in the name of love before you you okay please have a seat well that's a good start why don't you say wow yes but you know what I didn't get a chance to sing on my background part you know you know like the ooze and the eyes of the baby baby babies that's the next panel but don't be laughing because I was laughing all the way to the bank for about 55 years okay well there's so much to talk about because there's so much history that Motown made and continues to make right up until

today so I want to go back in time and I want to ask the question because a lot of people ask this question of me as a music historian and probably of you too it's the 1950s the late 1950s and it's Detroit and in Detroit we have a lot of talent obviously because Barry Gordy who will ultimately sign all of it and take it out of the Detroit into not just America but the entire world my question is was this unique to Detroit or was it where you could go into any black neighborhood in the inner cities anywhere in America and find the same kind of talent you know because in New York City you had Frankie Lyman and the teenagers and they lived in the projects so you do you did have talent everywhere but as Duke said it was Barry Gordy with his his dare to dream being and we all you know we all kind of went to Motown so we had a place to go so I think that that's the difference we had a place to go

now the Supremes also have a backstory in terms of a name as well you didn't start out as the Supremes right no and I actually should tell you as well that it was Eddie Kendrick's and Paul Williams who they they became the temptations but they were originally the primed and so when we when we went to audition for them they gave us a name of primates and as as Claudette was saying back in those days you had to say if you were a girl or guy and so this way everyone knew if you had an etch or a rail or whatever you were a girl and so that's how we we got our name because we we were named after the primed and it was amazing because when we went to Motown to sign our first contract and this when we started we were only 13-14 years old okay so but by the time we got to Motown it was I think around 1960-61 so we want to sign our contract and Mr. Gordy said okay you can you can sign your

contract however you got to change that name I don't like that name well are there any lawyers out there okay here's the thing we at 16 we did not read our contract okay we're like three old to be there we would assign we I would have given away one of my eleven grandchildren to be at Motown okay that's how much we wanted to go if we didn't care about money we just wanted to be there and so Mr. Gordy said said to us okay sign the contract and he said did you get a new name and we said oh do we really have to change our name from the primates he said oh yeah so Florence Ballard was almost like Claudette was the one who pulled the name out of of of a bag a brown paperback or whatever and it was the Supreme's what Diana and I and Barbara Martin who was in the group because we were four at the time did not like the Supreme's because it sounded like a building you know we're girls we're girly girls right so but Mr. Gordy said oh you got to have a new name so Florence is what I call it the Supreme so Florence

was the one who who named our group what was it like that first time you are winning the studio the record the first time we went into the studio first while we we recorded not at Motown first we recorded at Lupine Records first and that was a record label that was with Wilson Pickett was on it the Falcons and oh god it was oh Floyd Eddie Floyd was there so we actually backed up a lot of those recordings with Eddie Floyd and I think we did one with the Falcons but we didn't really care for the company that much because we had already seen Motown and we said you know what let's get back to Motown so we went back to Motown and we finally recorded I want a guy that was our first recording we were so we were like just absolutely I can't even say happy as a word you know here's what I tell a lot of people we were three little black

girls who dared to dream at a time when dreams did not come true for black people we really were and and and and I don't think we had in our minds we wanted to be a stars it wasn't what people wanted in those days we just wanted to sing and we found each other and we were happy and we knew that this was special and so we did dare to dream and when we recorded that record I want a guy it changed my life because I knew then wow this is something very special now you had an opportunity to attend college but I he thought about that dream you mean to tend our our families they they allowed us to sing because it gave us something to do we were girls pretty not all the street running wild you know so parents wanted to protect us they oh this seems safe so they can do that however when it came time to graduate from high school they didn't they they thought we were gonna go on and get a job or go to college college first but get a job too and and so I

remember telling Eddie Holland I said hey if we don't get a hit record we're gonna have to go to college well we're gonna get a hit record and that's when yeah they started really being serious about us and knowing that we were serious and they came up with our first hit record but it was about our eighth ninth release I should say that tells about that that Motown experience obviously it was more than just singing it was about mannerism and young women acting like young women the Motown experience for us came after the fact I want to first say that the three of us you know the four primates and the three Supremes we came from families that taught us that when you walk out this door you represent the black community we always had the good great example of being a woman being a not just a woman but being a female

who you know we knew what we were supposed to do in life so blackness for us was very very important and so at Motown we were very fortunate that when we walked into their door they recognized that we were not just three three girls who wanted to be singers we really were special ladies and it had come from our background from our families you know from the church we went to Aretha Franklin's father church Reverend Franklin see how Franklin so you know we grew up around women who always dressed well so when we want to Motown door they recognize that we were a little special you know and thank God they decided to start this artist development program we were very fortunate to go there and have our mentor and Mrs. Maxine Powell who taught us she says I'm not an etiquette teacher now I'm you're finishing you know I mean I teach you how it's all inside how to be beautiful inside and she always said you

beautiful people and then she told us one day you're going to sing before Kings and Queens now we only 16 years old okay and whatever yeah only Queens I know you know are but anyway we eventually yeah we started singing before Kings and Queens hanging out with them and so you know it showed us that this didn't just happen you know to me it was we were chosen we were chosen to do what we did and I think I'm very proud of it I spoke with Woopy Grover lately in fact she wrote the opening to my next book Supreme Glamrs all about the Supreme's gowns and she said that when she was young and she saw a son on TV and you know saw these three beautiful black women it gave her something to aspire to so you know it was for me it's something I'm very proud of it you know I don't take it lightly if I had not been a Supreme I would have wanted to be but I am one when did you understand and realize that you all had achieved something

really special when we achieved it well I first of all it started before we became famous because we kept saying well why don't they see how great we are you know because we were called the no-hit Supremes which I I wrote that okay I coined that phrase but now you know oh so you know I coined that because you know we we couldn't get that hit record and that was what was going to put us over the top right so once we realized that's what we had to have then our dream changed from just being serious it changed to wanted to achieve something special and so that was our goal and once that happened once Mr. Barry Gordy put us together with Holland or Charlotte and we got the hit records that was when we knew we had achieved when we were on the Dick Clark caravan of stars tour and they had released where did our love go and the record became a hit while we were on the tour we didn't even know it because we're on this bus tour trailing the south

you know with people like the drifters or the charales and and Jean Pitney and Leslie Gore we weren't that kind of tour so when the record became a hit and we on this bus tour we we kind of like you know we knew we had made it that's when we knew we had made that we had achieved what we wanted to. Talk about that friendly competition I assume it's friendly competition Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Martha, Van Della's, marvelous. Well you know you say tell you about the friendly competition I don't I don't think that I don't think that any one of us felt that we were competing against each other and I tell you why that's so important for for people to understand that you would think with all of these wonderful talented people there would be competition but as you'd say it was friendly but we didn't think of it as competition you know I remember just just being

at all of people we were there when Stevie Wonder came in Mr. Gordon Barry Gordon said we have a little genius coming in today and I want you girls you're surprised to be here when he comes in and I'm said to myself what is a genius I don't know if I've ever seen a genius before once Stevie came in and I'm like that's a genius he played every instrument there but that's the way everyone was so we were we were admired each other for the talent now when one person got a hit record then you know you start to say okay when is mine coming that's when maybe some sort of whatever but it was always lovingly done that you know we did the tours whoever saved the contours opened whoever followed the contours of the cost off the stage saying okay beat that and then the next one will come up there beat that but it was all really a wonderful feeling it made everyone even better in the baby I'm aware of where you go it's time you leave my door I want you more on the street

knowing your other love would be but this time before you run too late leaving me alone and there take it all off I'm driving good to you you don't know I'm driving sweet to you stop in the name of love before you praise my heart stop in the name of love before you praise my heart you can hold on there the late Mary Wilson co-founder of the legendary supreme Wilson died on February 8th 2021 she was 76 if you have questions comments or suggestions ask your future in Black

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