The Supremes - and other top Motown groups - owe a great debt to Maxine Powell, who died yesterday at 98. Miss Powell ran a finishing school in Detroit and was hired by Berry Gordy to help Motown artists with personal development, from etiquette to fashion and body movement. These performers were traveling the world, representing Black America, and they did it with style and grace in part because of this remarkable woman.
Yesterday's Detroit Free Press quotes Mary Wilson saying of Miss Powell, “She gave us more than just the tools for the movements and the gowns. These were tools for us as human beings.”
