How many of you met Florence Ballard? [[Excluding Peter Benjaminson)

[IMissFlo93]

For no particular reason I wanted to ask you all---

With the exception of Peter Benjaminson, how many of you met Florence when she was alive?

What era? Supremes? ABC Records? Broke and depressed? Comeback?

Share your stories here.

[BigAl]

I met Florence only once [[well, twice if you count the following day) in August of 1966, when the group played Virginia Beach and "You Can't Hurry Love" was climbing the charts. She was very sweet and effusive the first evening at the hotel after the performance, but rather remote the following morning when I encountered her and Diane on the street as they came out of a drug store across from the hotel, carrying hot dogs which they were eating for breakfast[[!) with no road or security people anywhere around. It was very early and the street was deserted so it was just the two of them and my friend and me. I was surprised about that. The top female group in the world with an eighth single almost at number one and nobody else with them, and eating drugstore hot dogs on the street. My friend and I had them to ourselves for a short time and it was all very surreal. Diane was being a little bossy with Flo that morning so I guess she might have been shutting herself off a bit which might account for her being more remote. Still, it was a thrill to meet her, however briefly, and as old people always say, it seems like just yesterday.

[luke]

Did you chat with them?

[BigAl]

Did you chat with them?

I was a star-struck fifteen-year old and it was all I could do to stammer out how much I admired them. The evening before, at the hotel, they were doing an impromptu meet & greet and tour book signing with fans and didn't have time for anything more than a quick hello. I was greeted the most warmly by Flo, however. The next day, after we encountered Diane and Florence in the street, a small number of fans had shown up in the hotel parking lot and were flocking around Diane, who was by then sitting in the front seat of the taxi [[yes..a taxi…no limo). Florence was largely ignored in the back seat and Mary hadn’t emerged from the hotel yet. Flo just looked very aloof, kept her eyes down and didn’t say much. I was too shy to say more than hello to her. So, no, I didn’t chat with her as I did with Cindy a couple of years later under similar circumstances.

[luke]

Thanks. Great story. Same for me and Cindy when they were appearing at Waldorf.

[BigAl]

Thanks. Great story. Same for me and Cindy when they were appearing at Waldorf.

Cindy was an extrovert and Florence wasn't, so it was lots easier to talk with Cindy.