Florence Ballard
American singer (1943–1976)
Florence Glenda Chapman was an American singer and a founding member of the Motown vocal female group the Supremes. She sang on 16 top 40 singles with the group, including nine number-one hits. After being removed from the Supremes in 1967, Ballard tried an unsuccessful solo career with ABC Records, before she was dropped from the label at the end of the decade. After struggling with alcoholism, depression and poverty for several years, she was in the midst of a musical comeback when she died of a heart attack in February 1976 at the age of 32. Ballard's death was considered by one critic as "one of rock's greatest tragedies". Ballard was the first woman posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes in 1988.
The public source identifies “Florence Ballard” as american singer (1943–1976). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Florence, Ballard and American.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Florence Ballard”, the useful work is to connect “american singer (1943–1976)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1967, 1976 and 1988.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Florence Ballard”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Florence Ballard primary sources, Florence Ballard archive and Florence research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Florence Ballard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.