Diana Ross: A Biography

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  Update, 2014

  Diana Ross has often stated that she is a very private person living a very public life. Throughout her career, she’s never been one to seek publicity by taking advantage of a personal crisis. Even when incidents occur that force the spotlight on her private life, she seems never to take advantage of the situation. Unlike many other celebrities who exploit both the good and bad for every drop of media coverage, Miss Ross long ago adopted the rule that the less she says about a story, the faster it will disappear from sight.

  Never was Diana’s privacy policy more challenged than with the untimely passing of Michael Jackson on June 23, 2009. Everyone from Michael’s family, his closest co-workers, and many fellow mega-stars seemed to appear on talk shows broadcast around the world, all sharing their remembrances. Certainly, few people had as much right to speak about Jackson as Ross, and many observers anticipated an interview with the woman Michael admitted to idolizing his entire life. To complicate matters further, when Michael’s will was revealed to the public, it was Diana Ross who was named as the second guardian of his children in the event that his mother, Katherine, was unable to care for them. The week that announcement was made, Diana was number two on the list of the most googled names in the world, right behind Michael Jackson. Still, she remained out of the spotlight. Michael’s death surely had a profound affect on her, but as usual, her feelings were her own, and they were private.

  Several years earlier, Diana had recorded a beautiful version of Michael’s last number-one pop hit, “You Are Not Alone.” The sentimental song was never issued as a single and not even released in the United States. When Motown/Universal discovered that it had the rights to the tune, the company wanted to issue a single that would hit the market the very day of Michael’s funeral. Rarely has a lyric sounded as timely as Diana singing “How could this be, you’re not here with me?” By the song’s climax it seems her voice is echoing to the heavens, “You are not alone! I am here for you!” It expresses a dramatic and touching sentiment from Diana to Michael, and executives at the record company were certain that the song would debut on the charts at number one and become the biggest tribute record since Elton John’s ode to Princess Diana, “Candle in the Wind.”

  Ross’s version of “You Are Not Alone” was readied for release—even the artwork for the packaging was completed. However, Universal had to get her approval. The company wasn’t able to obtain it. That hit record likely would have exposed Diana to an entirely new generation and possibly brought greater fame than she had at any point in her career. Obviously, that wasn’t important to her. She did not want to seem to be cashing in on Michael’s death. To this day, according to many reporters, she stipulates before she is interviewed that she not be asked about Michael Jackson or his children.

  A year after Michael’s death, she seemed a little more ambivalent as to how to handle the tragedy. She decided that perhaps enough time had passed for her to pay tribute to Jackson. Therefore, she included a short but touching tribute to him in her concerts, singing a piece of “You Are Not Alone” that segued into her own Top Ten hit “Missing You.” When she brought the show to Los Angeles, she even announced that Michael’s children were in the audience. During the tour, however, the segment was not included every night, and it was soon dropped from the concert altogether, which suggests that she wasn’t comfortable with the tribute, perhaps feeling it was still too soon.

  Early in 2012, Diana was finally to be presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Tragically, however, on the night of the pre-Grammys party, Whitney Houston was found dead at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Diana expressed her condolences to the family and admitted to having mixed emotions about even appearing at the gathering. Sadly, what should have been a spectacular celebration of Diana’s contributions to the music industry ended up being a mere mention of her name on the telecast. “It was disappointing, yes,” said a close friend of hers. “However, considering her stellar career, such disappointments are easily handled. She’s never been one for accolades, anyway. She’s always believed she gets her best approval from her audiences during her performances.”

  In November of that year, she performed in India at a birthday bash for Naomi Campbell’s billionaire boyfriend, Vladimir Doronin. At the end of her show, she slipped and broke her ankle, but even that didn’t keep her down for long. She was certainly in fine form when she performed several holiday tunes for President Obama on the TV special “Christmas in Washington,” aired on December 1, 2012. Though she was wearing a therapeutic “boot” on the injured foot and was forced to stand in place during the entire show, she shined like no other performer on the broadcast.

  Today, Diana Ross is a very hands-on grandmother of two, who still maintains an active performing schedule—as of this writing she is on tour. When Diana and her family spent an hour with Oprah Winfrey on one of the last episodes of her long-running talk show, Oprah asked if she would ever retire. Diana responded that if she one day found that she couldn’t perform to her own high standards, yes, she would stop performing. Indeed, she still strives for perfection, just as she did in her ambitious youth at Motown. Luckily for her legion of fans—based on her vocal performances during recent concerts and the enthusiastic reception she still gets whenever she walks onto a stage—it would seem that Diana Ross is here to stay.

  On March 26, 2014, Miss Diana Ross celebrated her 70th birthday.

  Acknowledgments

  To be able to revisit this subject once again—in many ways, the story of my youth—has been a remarkable experience for me. After I wrote my last two books about Diana—Diana: A Celebration of her Life and Career, 1985, and Call Her Miss Ross, 1989—I went on with my career as an author and, to be honest, never looked back. Not that I ever had the time to do so! I never imagined that all of these years later I would have another opportunity to write about Miss Ross. Indeed, time does march on, doesn’t it? And as it does, history—and our perception of it—changes as new information comes to light. Thankfully, I too have changed over the years, my viewpoints informed and altered simply by my maturity and experience. Therefore, this book reflects my current interpretation of my lifelong investigation of Miss Ross’s saga. Indeed, some of my opinions and perspectives are a little different from what they were in 1985 and in 1989. However, if one assembles my three volumes about Diana, my many published articles about her and the Supremes along with my countless press interviews about Motown, one would have, without a doubt, one of the greatest stories I’ve ever had the opportunity to share.

  I must first thank Mary Wilson of the Supremes for giving me my first big break in show business by hiring me to work for the famous trio when I was a just a kid with a dream. I left my hometown of Morton, Pennsylvania, to move to Los Angeles when I was nineteen with nothing but about fifty dollars in my pocket, no college education, a small—very small—amount of writing ability … and a lot of hope for the future. In those early days, I was inspired every step along the way by Mary. In my view, she’s made a true success of her life. She’s a woman who has persevered for a long time in a very tough business. If I ever gave the impression in my writings about her over the years that I did not appreciate her huge contribution to our pop culture, I am deeply sorry about it, and want to rectify it here. She is, and will always be, the heart and soul of the Supremes, and very much respected by many—and certainly by me.

  I also want to acknowledge the late Florence Ballard, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing on a few special occasions. She was someone I am proud to have known in my lifetime.

  Of course, what else can I say about Diana Ross that I haven’t already stated in my books about her? I suspect that Miss Ross wishes I would, once and for all, stop thinking about her! I realize that she is not my biggest fan. However, I am still hers. I first met her on 24 July 1966, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. My first interview with her was on 3 April 1972 for the Black American newspaper in New York. I began research for my first book about her in
October 1981 after interviewing her and being contacted by Doubleday & Company, as explained in the text of this edition. I hope my respect for her is clear in my writings about her over these many years. My intention has always been to take her and her life’s work seriously—critically at times, yes—and make certain that her rightful place in the pop music pantheon is recognized and secure. When all of us are gone, I like to think that my many, many thousands of words about her will remain and, hopefully, serve to remind future generations that, truly, there was only one Miss Diana Ross.

  I have had the pleasure of lifelong friendships with all of the other members of the Supremes. They are an inspiring group of proud and talented women, and I want to thank each of them for the happiness they brought to me and my family over the years. So, a special thank you goes to Jean Terrell, Lynda Laurence, Susaye Greene and especially to “my little” Scherrie Payne. Also, I would like to acknowledge Cindy Birdsong, a rare kind of person and someone else in my life I have known since I was a youngster. I have grown to respect and admire her so much over the years. Truly, I thank her for her influence in my life. She is very special.

  I also have a great deal of respect and admiration for Berry Gordy Jr., and I hope as much is obvious in my years of reporting about him. He and I have been at serious loggerheads many times. Indeed, there were a number of years when I was deeply disappointed in him and even extremely angry at him. I know that where I am concerned, the same holds true for him. However, in the end, one truth does remain: all of us who ever loved Motown and were influenced and inspired by its music and its story owe a deep debt of gratitude to the man who started it all. So thank you, Mr. Gordy, for orchestrating the soundtrack of my life and of the lives of so many others.

  George Solomon is not only the ultimate Diana Ross historian, he has also been a very good and loyal friend of mine for many years. He was invaluable to the production of this work and read it as a fact-checker numerous times in its many incarnations along the way. He is also chiefly responsible for helping to assemble the minutiae in this book’s Discography and other notes. I can’t thank him enough for all of his help, especially with that complicated—and often maddening—Discography. I’d also like to mention that George has been an extremely loyal friend to Diana Ross over the years, always defending her in an effort to achieve a fair balance in the public’s perception of her. I’m sure she is aware of his friendship, and appreciates it.

  Motown writer and reissue producer Andrew Skurow was also very helpful to me during the research and writing of this biography. He is quite an amazing young man who knows more about Motown history than anyone—except, maybe, George Solomon. (Not sure about that, though!) Seriously, I am very grateful to Andy for all of his input into the many different versions of this work until, finally, we had one that was the final version.

  I must thank Sara and Thomas Lockhart, Anne Martin and Stephen Bremmer for the many hours they put into transcribing taped interviews for this edition. Basically, we had in storage more than 500 cassette tapes of interviews I conducted with Motown stars and others related to the Diana Ross story, going all the way back to the 1970s. Some of this material was used in my other volumes about Diana, but much of it had not been utilized at all. Our challenge, then, was to ferret out the new material on these tapes, a task that took seemingly countless hours. There were times, I know, when these talented researchers wanted to strangle me for ever thinking that I needed to interview some Supremes’ member four times in a single day just to get to the truth about an issue that, all of these years later, doesn’t matter to anyone. I so appreciate their willingness to listen to all of these tapes and to transcribe new information that I could now share with my readers in this new volume.

  I first met Hazel Kragulac years ago when she was Mary Wilson’s secretary and today she remains a very good friend of mine. I am so very happy to have her in my life, and I also want to acknowledge her very wise husband, attorney Rob Kragulac.

  I also want to thank John Passantino for providing me with so much material during the research for this volume. John has been a loyal Supremes fan for decades but, more importantly, he has also been a good friend of theirs as well. He’s also been someone I value in my life. I want him to know how much I appreciate what he did to make this book as comprehensive as possible.

  Thanks also to my good friend Linda DiStefano. Her friendship means the world to me.

  All of the comments on these pages by Diana’s father, Fred Ross, are culled from three interviews my good friend and researcher Reginald Wilson conducted with him in 1983 and two that I conducted with him in 1990.

  I interviewed Diana’s mother, Ernestine Ross, in 1977 on the occasion of her marriage to her second husband, John Jordan. I interviewed her again in 1981 for the series of stories I authored about her daughter for a newspaper in Los Angeles called Soul.

  I interviewed Arthur T-Boy Ross in 1978 when he was promoting his Motown album Changes. I interviewed him again in 1983.

  I interviewed Wilbur “Chico” Ross in July 1992 and again in September of that year.

  I secured many hundreds of interoffice Motown memos regarding Diana’s career for research purposes. These memos were vital to the accuracy of the material in this book.

  Voluminous Motown press department releases (and also releases from different public relations firms representing Diana Ross through the years) were individually judged as to their validity and value, and utilized where appropriate.

  As the former editor-in-chief of Soul (1980) and then publisher (1981–82), I had access to the complete Soul files. For the uninitiated, Soul was one of the first black entertainment publications (excluding Jet and Ebony, both general-interest publications) and, as such, had a close association with Motown. In fact, many of the Motown acts received their only national exposure through Soul. A great deal of the material in this book was culled from the extensive Soul files (1966–82). I want to thank Soul’s publisher, Regina Jones, for her invaluable contribution to the lives and careers of so many of us who started our writing careers under her tutelage. I also would like to acknowledge my colleagues at Soul, Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts and author Steve Ivory. We’ve come a long way, fellows.

  More specifically, for this edition:

  I drew from personal interviews with Diana Ross on the following dates: 3 April 1972 (opening night interview at the Waldorf-Astoria for the Black American); 22 April 1973 (closing night at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas); 15 June 1972 (Caesar’s Palace); 2 February 1973 (Caesar’s Palace); 17 June 1973 (Caesar’s Palace); May 1977 (Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles); 15 July 1977 (press conference for The Wiz, the Music Center, Los Angeles); 18 October 1981 (for Soul magazine), and 19 October 1981 (Soul magazine).

  I also drew from the following personal interviews with Mary Wilson: 2 May 1973; 5 July 1973; 12 August 1973; 24 August 1973; 25 August 1973; 15 March 1974; 7 May 1974; 17 November 1974; 10 March 1975; 1 June 1976; 2 June 1976; 12 June 1976; 15 July 1976; 1 October 1977; 10 January 1982, and 24 November 1983.

  I conducted four interviews with Florence Ballard: 31 August 1973; 2 September 1973; 13 January 1975 and August 1975.

  My interviews with Cindy Birdsong were conducted on: 7 April 1974; 23 April 1974; 18 September 1974; 8 November 1974; 15 November 1974; 16 November 1974; 23 January 1975; 10 March 1976; 11 March 1976; 25 August 1983; 26 August 1983; 27 August 1983, 1 February 1985; 3 March 1985; 23 November 1988, 1 December 1989 and 12 April 1990.

  Interviewed over the many years of research about Diana Ross were friends and associates of the Ross family, including Lillian Abbott, Walter Abbott, Walter Gaines, Barbara Abbott Gaines, Mavis Booker, Doris Jackson, Barbara Allison Simpson, McCluster Billups, Susan Burrows, Evelyn Daniels, Ann Brown Essien, Harold E. Baker, Carol Betch, Tremaine Hawk, Joseph Einhom, Maria Gonzalez, Haywood Johnson, Lammii Allison, Charles Guy, Rita Griffin, Chester Logan, Tony Middleton, Levert Neyman, Mary Constance, Michelle Donate, Damian O’Brien, Davis Paris Jr., Frances
Hamburger, Thomas Perry, Mildred Browning Harris, Julia Cloteil Page, Robert Kraft, Joseph Payton, Levi Andrews, Andrew Popkin, Thomas Rork, Edward Gillis, Louella Jiles, James and Ellen Goldfarb, Gene Scrimpscher, Milton Ford, Ebie Herbert and Tommy Gardner Sr.

  I also want to thank Mabel Givens for all of her memories and for the time she devoted to sharing them with me for this volume during the months of 2005 and 2006.

  My friend Reginald Wilson’s visits to Detroit and the Brewster Projects in 1983 helped ensure the accuracy of chapters regarding Ross’s early years. Thanks, Reggie … I’ll always remember our friendship and the work we did together.