Early Life
Ballard was born in Detroit, Michigan on June 30, 1943 as the ninth of fifteen children to Lurlee (née Wilson) and Jessie Ballard. Ballard's father worked at General Motors and struggled to raise his large family, with them constantly moving to different neighborhoods in Detroit. Eventually, the family settled at Detroit's Brewster-Douglass housing projects by the time Ballard had reached fifteen. Ballard's father would die the following year from cancer.
Ballard earned two nicknames as a child: "Flo" and "Blondie", the latter due to her fair complexion and light auburn hair. Ballard attended Northwestern High School and was coached vocally by Abraham Silver. While in Northwestern, Ballard met a girl from a different school named Mary Wilson as the two sung on the same talent show and shortly after, they became friends. In 1959, Ballard was spotted on her porch by a local talent scout named Milton Jenkins, then manager of the vocal group the Primes, as he sought to find female vocalists to fill spots for a sister group of the Primes. Impressed by her vocals, Jenkins asked Ballard if she knew any more singers. Ballard soon asked Wilson to join the group. Wilson then enlisted another neighbor, Diane Ross. Betty McGlown completed the original lineup and Jenkins named them the Primettes.
After performing in sock hops and jubilees for much of a year, the group auditioned for Motown Records founder Berry Gordy after Motown staffer Richard Morris introduced the group to him. Gordy advised the underage vocal group to graduate from high school before auditioning again. Shortly afterwards, Ballard was raped at knife point by local high school basketball player Reggie Harding after leaving a sock hop at Detroit's Graystone Ballroom where she had attended with her brother, but were separated accidentally. The rape occurred at an empty parking lot off of Woodward Avenue. Ballard responded by secluding herself in her house refusing to come outside, which worried her group mates. Weeks later, Ballard eventually told Wilson and Ross of what happened. Though Ross and Wilson were sympathetic to what had happened to Ballard, they were confused as Ballard was considered to be strong-willed and unflappable; the rape was never mentioned again. Prior to the rape, Ballard had been described by Wilson and an early boyfriend, Jesse Greer, as being a "generally happy if somewhat mischievous and sassy teenager". Wilson believes the rape incident heavily contributed to the more self-destructive aspects of Ballard's adult personality, such as her cynicism, pessimism and fear or mistrust of others.
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