Florence Ballard was put out of the Supremes, barred from using the name for a $139,804 payment, and was on welfare seven years later

Florence Ballard co-founded the Primettes in 1959 and chose the name "the Supremes" when Berry Gordy asked for a new one. After a 1967 show in Las Vegas, Gordy sent her back to Detroit and replaced her with Cindy Birdsong. On 22 February 1968 she negotiated her release from Motown. She received a one-time payment of $139,804 and was barred from promoting herself as a former Supreme or mentioning Motown. The settlement money went through a management agency run by her lawyer, Leonard Baun; it was drained, and Baun was later charged with embezzlement^†. In July 1971 she sued Motown for more royalties and lost. Her husband left, and her house was foreclosed. By 1975 she and her three daughters were on welfare, which Detroit Free Press reporter Peter Benjaminson reported nationally. In early 1975 a settlement from her former lawyer's insurance company let her buy a small house^†. She died on 22 February 1976, aged 32, of coronary thrombosis, eight years to the day after signing her release. About 5,000 fans came to her funeral at New Bethel Baptist Church. Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Stevie Wonder and the Four Tops attended. The group continued as "Diana Ross and the Supremes."