Mary Wilson

American singer, the Primettes and Supremes with Diana Ross. Mary Wilson was raised in a low-income housing project in Detroit. She met Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, billing themselves as the Primettes. They performed at local gigs for $15 a week. At 17, she signed with Motown records. Barry Gordy created their style and molded their success. In the sixties, Wilson joined the Supremes, with their record sales second only to the Beatles. They had their first big hit "Where Did Love Go?" in 1964, making a quarter of a million a year. Ross left the Supremes in 1969, the group then disbanded in 1977. Wilson was married to Supremes road manager Pedro Ferrer for nine years, then divorced in 1983. She had three children by 1986. In 1994, Wilson fell asleep while driving, car overturned killing her fourteen year old son, Rafael. Wilson wrote her autobiography in 1986. Wilson has since released three solo albums, five singles and two best selling autobiographies, Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme, a record setter for sales in its genre and Supreme Faith: Someday We'll Be Together, both books later released as an updated combination. Continuing a successful career as a concert performer, Wilson also became a musicians' rights activist as well as a musical theater performer and organizer of various museum displays of the Supremes' famed costumes. Wilson was inducted along with Ross and Ballard (as members of the Supremes) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Link to Wikipedia biography