FORMER LADIES

OF THE SUPREMES

(FLOS)

The Detroit News

Will Motown Name Game Reach the Supremes Court?        Back To The Top

By Susan Whitall /Friday, September 18, 1998

One group name squabble that's been wending its way through the courts is that of the Supremes.

Former Supreme Mary Wilson sued Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne, who sang in later incarnations of the Motown group. Laurence and Payne tour as "Former Ladies of the Supremes," or "FLOs."

Wilson's stance is that Motown gave her the rights to the name "Supremes," and to protect her rights she must sue anybody who uses the name at all (including Karen Ragland, a woman who once sang backup for her, but never was in the Motown Supremes. Ragland bills her group as the "Sounds of the Supremes.")

Laurence and Payne's argument is that Motown owns the rights to the name Supremes, not Wilson, and that they have Motown's permission to use the name "FLOs." They won a summary judgment last August, but Wilson and her attorneys are appealing.

Laurence and Payne label themselves as former members of the Supremes, and have it specified in their contracts that they are not to be billed as "The Supremes."

"I wish we could put all this behind us, and even do a show together," Laurence says with a sigh.

Then a month ago in Las Vegas, a new development. The grand diva Supreme of them all, Diana Ross, showed up at a concert at the Hilton hotel where the Former Ladies of the Supremes were performing. She posed for pictures with Laurence and Payne, which they took as a vote of confidence.

"It puts the stamp of approval on our group," says Laurence.

"It ends a lot of speculation about things. Diana really enjoyed it, she said it was a good show. I appreciated the fact that she felt it was done in Supremes fashion, because that's what we want to do."

The Associated Press, July 7, 1999     Back To The Top

The Decision... 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An original member of The Supremes has lost an appeal of her trademark suit against three women who perform as Former Ladies of the Supremes.

The rights to the group's name are owned by Motown, and not by former members such as Mary Wilson, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday.

The court said Motown had allowed Former Ladies of the Supremes - and another spin-off group, Sounds of the Supremes - to keep their names, and there was nothing Wilson could do about it.

Wilson's suit claimed the groups were misleading members of the public into believing they were the authentic Supremes. The court's response wasn't surprising, said Walter Allan, lawyer for Former Ladies of the Supremes - Lynda Laurence, Scherrie Payne and Jean Terrell.

``She really didn't have a case and she shouldn't really have taken an appeal,'' Allan said. Wilson's lawyer, Allen Hyman, declined comment, saying he hadn't seen the ruling.

The Supremes...A Brief History        Back To The Top

(Thanks to David Kramlick)

The group did continue after Mary left with Joyce Vincent Wilson of Tony Orlando and Dawn fame filling in the shoes that Mary Wilson vacated.   They, however did NOT record as the Supremes and they did NOT perform as Supremes.

Shortly thereafter, Scherrie & Susaye were offered the chance to write and co-produce their own Motown album called Partners - the trade off is that the Supremes career would end.  Although Lynda Laurence was in the group for a little over a year, her face appeared on the Floy Joy album cover, it was Cindy singing on every single cut. Lynda was on the Album "Produced by Jimmy Webb" and the single Bad Weather.

Scherrie was recording for Superstar International Records here in San Francisco when she was asked by that record company to reform a group of Supremes. The year was 1986. At that time, they knew they could NOT call themselves The Supremes, as they did NOT own the name. They checked their Motown contracts and saw that they could be called, formerly of". That's where the name Former Ladies of The Supremes comes from. Originally it was Scherrie, Jean and Cindy. But Cindy soon dropped out and Jean suggested that they contact Lynda. The group reformed as The Former Ladies of The Supremes (which they have a legal right to do - as long as they know they have NO right to the Supremes name or any of the profits associated with it.

Jean dropped out - and you can't have a group of former Supremes without a third girl. Since Jean's departure, Sundray Tucker and now Freddi Poole make up the third part.