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Mary Wilson, co-founder of the legendary Motown group The Supremes as a 15-year-old in Detroit has died.
Wilson transitioned in her Las Vegas home. She was 76-years-old.
Wilson’s longtime publicist, Jay Schwartz broke the news that she passed away in her sleep. The circumstances of her death have not been made public as of yet.
While immediate funeral services will be held privately, due to COVID, a public memorial will take place later this year.
In a statement, Motown founder Berry Gordy wrote:
“I was extremely shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of a major member of the Motown family, Mary Wilson of the Supreme,” said Berry Gordy in a statement Monday night. “The Supremes were always known as the ‘sweethearts of Motown.’ Mary, along with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, came to Motown in the early 1960s. After an unprecedented string of No. 1 hits, television and nightclub bookings, they opened doors for themselves, the other Motown acts, and many, many others. … 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. She was a trailblazer, a diva and will be deeply missed.”
According to Variety, just two days before her death, Wilson posted a video on YouTube announcing that she was working with Universal Music on solo material, including the unreleased album Red Hot she recorded with Gus Dudgeon a year before the Supremes disbanded in 1977.
In the video, Wilson said, “Hopefully some of that will be out on my birthday, March 6.”
With this being the 60th anniversary of The Supremes’ founding, Wilson was attend celebrations marking this anniversary.
Wilson was a constant in the group when both Florence Ballard and Diana Ross left.
Born in Greenville, Mississippi, Wilson and her family migrated north to St. Louis, Chicago, and eventually settled in Detroit’s Brewster-Douglass Projects.
In elementary school, she met Florence Ballard and the two began singing together. Later, they formed the Primettes with Diana Ross and Betty McGlown.
The group signed to Motown in 1961 and the name was changed to The Supremes.
After the group fell out of popularity in the late seventies, Wilson shifted gears. By 1986, she released the New York Times bestselling memoir, Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme. Wilson would go on to author four books, the last of which, Supreme Glamour, was published in 2019.
Though Wilson and Ross has a tense relationship, as detailed in Dreamgirl, she wrote, “She has done many things to hurt, humiliate, and upset me, but, strangely enough, I still over her and am proud of her.”
Ross released a statement about Wilson’s passing this morning on Twitter.
That same year, Wilson appeared on season 28 of “Dancing with the Stars.”
Wilson is the mother to three children from her marriage to Pedro Ferrer: Turkessa, Pedro Antonio Jr. and Rafael. In 1994, her son Rafael, who was 14 at the time, was killed in an accident in which he and Wilson’s jeep overturned on the highway.
Mary is survived by her two children, ten grandchildren and one great granddaughter.
