Mary Wilson Supreme Faith - 3 questions

**diktatorship** · 04-20-2012, 03:46 PM

I have just read Supreme Faith [[Someday we'll be together, Mary's second book detailing 1970 to about 1989) and it was a very absorbing read. Three things that people on here might know as I became curious on reading:

1. Whatever happened to Pedro Ferrer? He hardly gets a mention after they divorced in the early 80s, did he stay in music management, was he a success, did he ever defend himself against all the allegations made in the book? What was his relationship with his children like following Mary's revelations?

2. Mary's adopted son Willie gets mentioned up until about the time her natural children appear but barely after that. What became of him? I guess he will must be around 50 now.

3. She mentions the time the Supremes sang the national anthem at the Mohammad Ali - Ron Lyle [[?) fight in about 1975, I believe it was her, Sherrie and Cindy but I could be wrong. I remember seeing this on Youtube a couple of years ago and it was a fantastic impromptu performance which showed their voices up in a wonderful light. Anyone have a link to this performance? [[I couldn't find it on Youtube).

Thanks in advance.

**kenneth** · 04-20-2012, 03:57 PM

I only know [[3).

It's a fabulous acapella performance, where they find out just when they're about for the music to cue that there is no music. I looked for a couple minutes but couldn't find it on YouTube, but there was a thread here before which did link to it. It's worth finding. I'm sure someone else can pull it out.

**Glenpwood** · 04-20-2012, 04:18 PM

I found the original forum thread about the Anthem and the link to You Tube states it was removed. As for Pedro, in the Pink reissue combo of Dreamgirl/SF:SWBT with added material Pedro is mentioned in regards to Turkeesa's wedding and appears in a photo at that event. I don't believe Pedro's ever come out and disputed Mary's claims.

**kenneth** · 04-20-2012, 04:36 PM

Thanks Glenpwood. I'd love to have that "Star Spangled Banner" as a bonus track on a Supremes reissue, that is, if there's many unearthed tracks yet to be found!

**marv2** · 04-20-2012, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by diktatorship

I have just read Supreme Faith [[Someday we'll be together, Mary's second book detailing 1970 to about 1989) and it was a very absorbing read. Three things that people on here might know as I became curious on reading:

1. Whatever happened to Pedro Ferrer? He hardly gets a mention after they divorced in the early 80s, did he stay in music management, was he a success, did he ever defend himself against all the allegations made in the book? What was his relationship with his children like following Mary's revelations?

2. Mary's adopted son Willie gets mentioned up until about the time her natural children appear but barely after that. What became of him? I guess he will must be around 50 now.

3. She mentions the time the Supremes sang the national anthem at the Mohammad Ali - Ron Lyle [[?) fight in about 1975, I believe it was her, Sherrie and Cindy but I could be wrong. I remember seeing this on Youtube a couple of years ago and it was a fantastic impromptu performance which showed their voices up in a wonderful light. Anyone have a link to this performance? [[I couldn't find it on Youtube).

Thanks in advance.

I saw Pedro Ferrer a couple of years ago here in New York at Mary's Up Close Show at Feinteins'. Sitting right up front. He's grandpa now but still looks like he could kick someone's ass! LOL!!! They all have a very good relationship today.

**jobeterob** · 04-20-2012, 05:19 PM

March 28, 1994 Vol. 41 No. 11 Supreme SpiritBy Cynthia Sanz
After Her Son's Death in a Freak Highway Accident, Mary Wilson Pushes Forward in the Name of LoveFacebook Twitter E-mail MARY WILSONS BODY IS ALMOST HEALED. Her broken collarbone and ribs are slowly setting, and the lung that was punctured when her 1992 Jeep Cherokee crashed into a highway median is once again functioning.

But six weeks after the accident that injured Wilson and claimed the life of her 14-year-old son, Rafael, the former Supreme has come to know that some wounds can't be healed with medicine alone. Despite her determined efforts to move on with her life, the images of the Jan. 29 crash play repeatedly in her mind. Wilson breaks into sobs when she thinks of those last seconds when Rah reached out to help her with the wheel as the Jeep spun out of control.

"It will be with me all my life," says Wilson, 50. "I see every little bump. I see the median as we hit it. I remember him trying to help me get the car back on the road. He always said, 'Mommy, I will always take care of you.' He was trying to take care of me then."

The two were on their way from Wilson's Los Angeles apartment to Las Vegas, bringing boxes of dishes, pots and other household items to Wilson's daughter Turkessa, 18, a senior at Green Valley High School there who had recently moved into a new apartment. Wilson was initially planning to drive up alone, but Rafael, who had spent the past year living with his brother, Pedro Jr., 16, and Mary's ex-husband Pedro Ferrer, 49, in Beverly Hills, while Wilson juggled career demands, offered to come along to see his sister. "I was so thrilled," remembers Wilson. "He came over and spent the night."

On the evening of Jan. 28, Rafael helped Wilson pack up the Jeep, after which the two had dinner and then went to bed early. Rising before dawn, they loaded Wilson's three cats and her cocker spaniel into the car—the animals survived the crash—and hit the road. Wilson put Toni Braxton and Brenda Russell CDs in the player, and Rafael listened to rap on his Walkman. For a while, they chatted lightly. "He said I corrected him all the time," says Wilson. "I said, 'I want you to be the best you can be.' He laughed and said he knew I was always going to be his mom and would never change."

But sometime after passing Barstow, Calif., about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles on Interstate 15, conversation flagged. "I remember I was planning to stop soon," says Wilson. "That was the next thing I was going to do." But she never got the chance. For reasons she still doesn't understand, she apparently nodded off, and the Jeep veered right, off the highway. "As we started going off the road, Rafi yelled, 'Mommy! Watch out!' " Wilson recalls. She swerved back onto the highway and skidded across the lanes into the center divider. The Jeep flipped over at least once and landed upright on the left shoulder.

Rafael was unconscious. His seat belt was still fastened, but he had been thrown halfway out the passenger-side door. Unable to move, Wilson was pulled over his body by motorists who stopped to help. One of her rescuers prayed with her while they wailed for medical help. "I would say, 'How is my boy?' and the man would say, 'He's holding on, he's a fighter,' " Wilson recalls. "Even though he was saying this, in my heart I knew that Rafi was not there."

By the time a helicopter arrived to take Wilson to Loma Linda [[Calif.) University Medical Center, Rafi had died from multiple internal injuries. At the hospital, Mary was joined by Pedro, Pedro Jr., Turkessa and Mary's close friend singer Rita Coolidge, who drove in from L.A. to slay with Wilson. "She was so banged up, so swollen, with lubes coming out of every place, my heart just dropped," says Coolidge, who spent three hours combing dirt and gravel from her friend's hair after Wilson was moved from intensive care to a private room.

But as the days went by, Wilson stunned even her friends with her determination to put the tragedy behind her. "She had tubes coming out of her back and her arm, and her left eye was a big old shiner," Coolidge remembers. "When she saw herself in the mirror, she just screamed, 'Here these doctors are coming in here and I'm flirting with them, and I look like this!' "

Coolidge is aware that some who don't know Wilson have mistaken her zeal to recover for an attempt to block the tragedy out of her mind. "People say, 'She's just not dealing with it; she's in denial'—but she's not," says Coolidge. "She talks about it all the time. She had her hospital room decorated with pictures of Rafi. That's not denial; that's walking into your worst nightmare."

Still, Wilson's appearance at the American Cinema Awards one week after the accident, and her quick resumption of her performance schedule four weeks after that—since launching her solo career in 1977, she has supported herself primarily through appearances at corporate functions—surprised many who know her. "People think that the only way you [deal with] pain is to cry out in public and pour out grief, and for a year you have to wear black and you can't go anywhere," says Wilson. "I am totally the opposite. I could say, 'If only I'd stayed in L.A., if only he'd never come along'—all those shoulda wouldas. It's really stupid. My advice is to make your life a testimony to your child. Obviously I'd like to have my son back, but I can't. So I need to do everything I can to bring myself to a higher level. It will mean I've done something better in his name."

While she lay on the side of the road after the crash, Wilson believes she heard Rafi's voice telling her to stay alive. "She finds comfort in that," says actress Beverly Todd, a longtime friend. "Mary has to forgive herself so she can heal."

Even through her grief, Wilson points out the good things that have happened since the accident, including a rapprochement with onetime best friend and fellow Supreme Diana Ross after years of estrangement. "My son's passing has brought a lot of love back into my life," says Wilson. "Diana called me, and I think our relationship is on the mend."

Even Wilson admits that getting on with her life won't be easy. When she recently drove to pick up her son Pedro Jr. at school, she says, "I could just see [Rafi] loping over to the car. I could feel that presence. Those things will be with me a lot. If I see a basketball game, I will think of him. Or football. Those things I know will remind me of him."

But she takes comfort in the times they shared. "He was a very affectionate kid, always hugging his mom," says Coolidge, her voice thick with emotion. " 'Mary's little angel' we called him all the time. And now he really is."

CYNTHIA SANZ
DANELLE MORTON in Los Angeles

**diktatorship** · 04-21-2012, 12:25 PM

Thanks for all the information. Yes, the death of her youngest son in 1994 was a tragedy and I believe she added a section about this and her continuing struggles against Motown in the updated release of her two books [[which I have not read.)

It sounds from your replies like Pedro is still around, albeit shrouded in mystery in terms of what he did after Mary left him. Also, her stepson will have to remain a mystery too, I hope he survived and succeeded in his life.

As for the clip of them singing the Star Spangled Banner a capella, I have trawled around to see if it still exists but seemingly the poster on Youtube had his or her account suspended due to copyright violations. So, if anyone has that, it would be good to see it on here some day.

Thanks again.

**carlo** · 04-21-2012, 04:51 PM

Mary's adopted son Willie is still around. I think he is married and has a few children of his own, so they are also Mary's grand kids.

**marv2** · 04-21-2012, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by carlo

Mary's adopted son Willie is still around. I think he is married and has a few children of his own, so they are also Mary's grand kids.

He was suppose to be writing a book as of 2009.

**BayouMotownMan** · 04-21-2012, 06:19 PM

Willie still travels with Mary performing different tasks from time to time. He has had arrests for various crimes in the past.

Pedro Ferrer finally got his law degree a few years ago, according to Scherrie Payne.

**marybrewster** · 04-23-2012, 01:43 PM

Re: Willie Wilson

I swear I read a year or so ago that one of Willie's children had a child; making Willie and grandfather, and Mary a great-grandmother.

I don't have a source but it is entirely possible; Mary is 68, which would put Willie at about 55. You can do the math from there, LOL.

**marv2** · 04-23-2012, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by marybrewster

Re: Willie Wilson

I swear I read a year or so ago that one of Willie's children had a child; making Willie and grandfather, and Mary a great-grandmother.

I don't have a source but it is entirely possible; Mary is 68, which would put Willie at about 55. You can do the math from there, LOL.

Willie is 52. He'll be 53 next year. I know, I know it's hard to believe but we are all getting older LOL!