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.
Mary Wilson, Co-Founder of the Supremes, Dies at 76
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Vocalist Mary Wilson, who co-founded the Supremes as a 15-year-old in a Detroit housing project and stayed with the fabled, hitmaking Motown Records trio until its dissolution in 1977, died on Monday night at her home in Las Vegas. She was 76.
Wilson’s longtime publicist, Jay Schwartz, reported that she died suddenly. The circumstances of her death were not immediately revealed. Funeral services will be private because of COVID, he said, but there will be a public memorial later this year.
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“I was extremely shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of a major member of the Motown family, Mary Wilson of the Supreme,” said Berry Gordy in a statement Monday night. “The Supremes were always known as the ‘sweethearts of Motown.’ Mary, along with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, came to Motown in the early 1960s. After an unprecedented string of No. 1
THE SUPREMES: (Singing) My world is empty without you, babe.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
One of the Supreme voices who made this song, My World, has died. Mary Wilson was a founding member of the Supremes, and she stayed with the group even after Diana Ross had left. NPR s Lauren Onkey, senior director of NPR Music, knew Mary Wilson and worked with her, and she is on the line with us now. Good morning, Lauren.
LAUREN ONKEY, BYLINE: Good morning, Rachel.
MARTIN: You actually interviewed Mary Wilson, I understand, when you worked in the public education program at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Tell us about her.