"I believe she was killed because someone wanted to silence her." Yet a close examination of the tragic story of Florence Ballard, her climb to stardom and how she was drummed out of the group and then died penniless, points to Flo's profligate husband, Tommy Chapman, known to have abused her, and who was found dead in 1985.Gordy, now 78 a former professional boxer turned record producer, launched Tamla Motown records with just 0 in 1959.These days, Raif, Rhonda’s 5-year-old son (with her pianist husband Rodney Kendrick), is likely to get onstage and bust some dance moves during her own set.“It’s like a Ross rite of passage,” the 43-year-old says, laughing, and her wide smile eclipses her mom’s.And that was like the most embarrassing thing of my life," he said."When you think of someone as a princess, the queen of your life, your mind plays tricks on you.
Backed by an eight-piece band, this love child of music royalty Diana Ross and Berry Gordy returns to the Iridium Sunday night to perform her own songs, an amalgam of R&B, funk and jazz she calls “music of the African diaspora.” But some may recall a 7- or 8-year-old Rhonda who, from the audience at Caesar’s Palace, sang “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)” as her Supreme mother held the mic.
But if her high-pitched wailing woke the neighbours, they just turned over and went back to sleep, reasoning that the girl was probably having a nightmare - and anyway, screams in the night were not unusual in that part of the city. The seven-year-old girl, Nicole, had indeed stumbled into a nightmare - but it was real.
After she had been awoken by a crashing sound, she had run downstairs into the living room and found her mother lying on the carpet, foaming at the mouth.
Diana Ross' daughter is coming out and she wants Las Vegas to know!
Tracee Ellis Ross surprised fans Sunday afternoon when she took to Facebook and shared a video from a recent concert with her mom.