Mary Wilson, founding member and linchpin of the Supremes, dies at 76
Mary Wilson #MaryWilson
Singer Mary Wilson, who as a founding member of the Supremes was part of one of the most influential and successful acts in music history, died on Monday night at the age of 76.
Jay Schwartz, Wilson’s publicist, said in a statement that the singer died suddenly in her home in Henderson, Nev. A cause of death was not immediately given.
Known as the “sweethearts of Motown,” the Supremes blazed a trail for Black and female artists in the 1960s rivaled by few in American music. A triumphant string of 12 No. 1 hits transformed three Black teens from Detroit — Wilson, Diana Ross and Florence Ballard — into cultural icons recognized for their glamour, elegance and ambition.
In the middle of it all was Wilson, a much needed steady and omnipresent force, a linchpin who was unafraid to speak her mind in a group with a well-documented history of dramatic power struggles.
“I was extremely shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of a major member of the Motown family, Mary Wilson of the Supremes,” Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement. “I was always proud of Mary. She was quite a star in her own right and over the years continued to work hard to boost the legacy of the Supremes. Mary Wilson was extremely special to me.”
He added, “She was a trailblazer, a diva and will be deeply missed.”
Born on March 6, 1944, in Greenville, Miss., Wilson was the eldest of three children to parents Sam and Johnnie Mae. Her parents separated shortly after her brother and sister were born in Chicago. Wilson, then 3, went to live with her aunt and uncle in southwest Detroit, believing they were her parents, she told the Wall Street Journal last year. It was here where Wilson was first exposed to music, with her uncle playing R&B and jazz records from the likes of LaVern Baker and Joe Williams in the basement of the one-story home.
“He played records all the time in the basement — so much so that I’d wake up each day singing,” Wilson told the Journal. “Nobody in my family could sing. I learned by listening to records.”
When her mother moved to Detroit to be a domestic worker and live with the family, the 10-year-old Wilson came to grips with how the woman she thought was her aunt was actually her mom. They would settle in Detroit’s Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects, the city’s largest public housing complex, by the time she was 12.
Though she was initially upset going from having her own room and wearing beautiful dresses to living with siblings who were strangers, Wilson would soon find friends as a teenager who would change the course of her life. The first time Wilson saw Ross was from the window of her family’s apartment, she told the Journal, believing she was “the most energetic and pretty girl I’d ever seen.”
In the case of Ballard, Wilson said she admired how her neighbor was so “proud and streetwise, in a regal way.” Ballard encouraged Wilson to try out for a sister group to a male vocal quintet called the Primes. Soon, the Primettes of Wilson, Ross, Ballard and Betty McGlown were formed, singing radio hits in hope of getting signed to Motown.
The label refused to sign the group until they finished high school, but that didn’t stop the teens from hanging out in front of Motown’s Hitsville U.S.A. headquarters every day after school, she told the Journal. Their big break happened when a producer came out with a minor request.
“He told us he needed hand claps on a record. We jumped and said, ‘We’ll do it,’” Wilson recounted. “In January ’61, Motown founder Berry Gordy said, ‘Wow, you girls are serious.’”
But after signing with Motown, the group, now a trio after the departures of McGlown and replacement Barbara Martin, struggled to connect. Their fortunes changed around 1963 with their first real hit in “When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes” and the group’s first No. 1 hit in 1964, “Where Did Our Love Go.”
It was the beginning of a barrage of No. 1 hits on the pop and soul charts for the Supremes between 1964 and 1969, including classics like “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Back in My Arms Again.” As Ross set out on her own for a solo career, Wilson, who appeared on all 12 No. 1 hits, remained the lone constant in a lineup that was regularly shifting and trying to find its footing after their superstar’s departure.
Wilson went on to write several best-selling memoirs about her time with the Supremes, including her first, “Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme,” which offered a scathing yet complicated portrayal of Ross.
“She has done many things to hurt, humiliate, and upset me,” she wrote in 1983, “but, strangely enough, I still love her and am proud of her.”
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes in 1988, Wilson released two solo albums and became a music activist, fighting to stop impostor groups from taking on the names of groups from the ’50s and ’60s. Wilson was publicly open to a Supremes reunion, saying to the Hollywood Reporter last month, “It’s really up to Diana.”
She had kept herself in the public eye in recent years, competing in “Dancing With The Stars” in 2019. On Saturday, just two days before her death, Wilson posted a YouTube video celebrating Black History Month and the 60th anniversary of the Supremes being signed to Motown, as well as talking about how she would be putting out previously unreleased solo material.
As the longest-tenured Supreme, Wilson said she inherited the group’s gowns, which helped redefine elegance and style. Looking at them inside the house she built for herself in 2019, she was reminded of the excellence that came with being a Supreme.
“Whenever I see [the gowns], I think about the glamour, the TV appearances, the performances and the love,” she told the Journal. “I also think about three girls from the projects who dared to dream.”
Wilson is survived by daughter Turkessa and son Pedro Antonio Jr., both of whom were from her marriage to former Supremes manager Pedro Ferrer, whom she divorced. She’s also survived by sister Kathryn, brother Roosevelt, and adopted son Willie, Variety reported, as well as many grandchildren. She was preceded in death by 14-year-old son Rafael, who was killed when Wilson’s Jeep flipped on the road between Las Vegas and Los Angeles in 1994.
Schwartz, her publicist, said in a statement that there will be a public memorial later this year.