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Mary Wilson performs onstage during Project Angel Food s Annual Angel Awards in 2019. // Getty Images for Project Angel Food, Charley Gallay
Updated at 10:30 a.m. ET
Mary Wilson, one of the co-founders of The Supremes, died Monday at the age of 76, her publicist announced.
Wilson passed away suddenly at her Henderson, Nev., home, the singer s longtime friend and publicist Jay Schwartz said in a statement. No cause of death was given.
Wilson was a trendsetter who broke down social, racial and gender barriers, Schwartz said in his statement.
Wilson was born Mar. 6, 1944, in Greenville, Miss.; not long after her birth, her parents headed to St. Louis and then Chicago for better opportunities, but separated soon after. As a three-year-old, Wilson was sent to Detroit to live with her aunt and uncle. As she told the
Martha Reeves got her final letter from Mary Wilson two weeks ago.
She didn’t realize that’s what it would be. But Reeves now cherishes the note from her “dear angel friend” and fellow Motown star, who was home in Las Vegas, eager to get through the pandemic and back onto the road. Someday, they’d be together, Wilson vowed to Reeves, sharing stages again, just as they’d done for decades.
Reeves and others in Motown’s tight-knit family were reeling Tuesday at news of Wilson’s unexpected death Monday evening in Henderson, Nevada, outside Las Vegas. The Clark County Coroner office told the Free Press she died of hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a condition related to high blood pressure.
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By Inside Edition Staff
Updated: 3:34 PM PST, February 09, 2021
Mary Wilson, alongside Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, skyrocketed to fame in the 1960s to become America’s most successful and best-charting vocal group of all time.
Mary Wilson, a founding member of the legendary Motown singing group “The Supremes,” has died. She was 76.
Wilson, alongside Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, skyrocketed to fame in the 1960s to become America’s most successful and best-charting vocal group of all time.
“I have so many wonderful memories of our time together,” Ross tweeted Tuesday. “‘The Supremes’ will live on, in our hearts.
Ballard died at the age of 32 in 1976. In recent years, Wilson carried the torch for the group. She spoke of her storied life with Inside Edition in 2006.