Originally Posted by
BayouMotownMan
This is nothing new since Marv is little more than a mouthpiece for his idol Mary Wilson. As one can see from reading this article that Mary has ways of playing with the truth. She didn't know why Jean left? She knew very well, Jean didn't bite her tongue.
The Lynda Laurence being a temp Supreme fable was started by Mary Wilson as an attempt at damage control since Jean and Lynda left Mary high and dry in late 1973. Mary presented this idea to the Supremes fan club president who refused to go along with it because he felt nobody would believe...and nobody does. For whatever reason Mary still perpetuates this to fuel the anger she has felt toward Lynda since this period. After losing her lawsuit to Karen Raagland Mary has taken shots at all the 70s ladies, except Cindy and maybe Susaye in an effort to diminish their roles in the group's history.
Lynda Laurence was signed to Motown like all the other ladies, as a soloist and was assigned to being in the Supremes replacing Cindy Birdsong. Cindy was leaving to start a family. Common sense would tell us that Cindy could perform as a Supreme well into her 7th month, as Mary did, had she wanted to maintain her position in the group. But Cindy left with no intention of returning.
Also adding confusion to this, when Cindy did agree to return, Mary announced via fan club that Cindy was returning TEMPORARILY until Mary could find two suitable singers. Cindy had filled in once before for Jean in Hawaii and then again in NYC. After meeting Scherrie and the three ladies hitting it off, Cindy decided she would stay permanently.
Lynda Laurence joined the Supremes for what was intended to be a permanent position. When she met Pedro Ferrar and discovered that Mary was going to put him in charge of the group, Lynda wisely backed away.
I loved every grouping of Supremes and am even friends with most of them. They are in their 70s now and whatever animosities between them have eased off...in most cases. Fans of the group can have their favorite individual members but doing it at the expense of another member of the group is so petty. Marv continues to be good at this even when others point out the discrepancies in most of his vitriolic "reporting."