This biography will be slightly different to some others which you may have read. Although I will cover all the major points of her career, I will also include some more personal information such as likes/dislikes, favorite food, colour, that kind of thing, so I hope that you enjoy reading this and learn a little more about the very special Lynda Laurence.
She was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of Ira Tucker of the group "The Dixie Humming Birds", and mother Louise. Her brother, Ira Tucker Jnr.is older and she also has a sister, Sundray Tucker who was also a member of The Former Ladies of The Supremes from 1992-1995.
By the age of 4, Lynda had already begun to follow in her fathers footsteps with a performance at "The Met" in Philadelphia with a rendition of the Lord's Prayer.
During her younger years she was constantly surrounded by music and by her father's singing, so it came as no surprise that in 1955 she wrote a song entitled "Eastern Fan Dolfi". Although I credit this achievement to Lynda, She insists that Sundray was the one responsible; maybe we should just conclude that it was a joint venture!
By 1969, when she had made an appearance on Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" working with Syreeta on the backing vocals, she had already made her choice of career. As a result of her work Stevie then asked her to put together a backing group for him, so she had sister Sundray and Terry Hendricks join her to become "The Chosen Few" who later became "The Third Generation"
Lynda's meeting with Stevie was made possible because of her cousin - Tammi Terrell's sister Ludi
Lynda was invited to join the Supremes in 1971 to replace Cindy Birdsong who was leaving to have a child . Although this was her chance to come into the limelight, the decisions wasn't a simple one - she has great respect and affection for Stevie and leaving him was not going to be easy. Thankfully for everyone of her fans she chose to take up the offer.
Unfortunately this first stint with the group lasted just a short while, from 1971-1973, but Lynda had already decided to take a rest because she was also having her son, so when she left, Cindy returned.
In 1974 Lynda's son, Trevor-Ira, was born. She had met her husband Trevor Laurence whilst she was working with Stevie Wonder.
Although she was no longer part of the Supremes, she wasn't away from work for very long as she recorded an album with Moacir Santos which was entitled "The Quiet Carnival". Harry Nillson also worked with her on his album "That's The Way It Is". The songs "Just One Look"/ "Baby I'm Yours" were duets with Harry Nillson.
The next recording was with the "Wilton Street Band" in 1977. Things for the next three years are a little patchy and I can't be certain of the work that she did, but 1980/1 was when she and Maxine Green sang backing vocals for Joe Cocker. Lynda worked with him over the next four years; She describes him as being "Wonderful, He's a doll!"
Some of the other people that she has worked with include: Bobby Womack - "I don't know what the world is coming to", Aretha Franklin - "Love all hurting away", The Rolling Stones - "You can't always get what you want"; there was also Cissy Houston and Darlene Love, to name but a few.
Then in 1985 Lynda achieved one of her own goals: to sing jazz, which she did when she recorded the songs "Green Dolphin Street", "How Sweet It Is". These songs were part of a performance for a jazz video at The Court House in Santa Ana.
As you can see, her vocal talent and adaptability is quite amazing so it would be hard to categorize her singing style.
The following year she again recorded a video, this time at a club named "At My Place". Here, she sang a song which is today generally associated with Scherrie Payne entitled "My World Is Empty Without You" and also sang "That's What Friends Are For" and "Feed The Hunger" as well as others.
In 1987, Lynda again Joined The Supremes alongside Jean Terrell and Scherrie Payne. Once again, She replaced Cindy Birdsong, performing in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.
Lynda met Ian Lavine in 1989 when he launched his "Motown Reunion" where the group performed along side other Motown Acts such as Carolyn Crawford, Edwin Starr - who later sang with them on the song "Private Number" , Kim Weston and Marv Johnson. There was also a video made of this show entitled "Legends of MotorCity USA".
When Jean decided to leave the group, Lynda once again had the chance to work with her sister, Sundray, who stayed in the group for a few years, replacing Jean.
During this time Lynda, Scherrie and Sundray worked all over the world in such places as Singapore, Portugal and here in England.
Lynda continues to work tirelessly, coming over on tour, and now most of their recording is done over here in England with the aid of their very good friend and producer, Steve Weaver.
As I close this biography, I want to list some of her likes and dislikes, just to give you a better insight into what makes this lady tick.
Favorite Supreme Song: She has two - Love is here and now you're gone & Up the ladder to the roof.
Favorite Supreme Gown: Black velvet jeweled gowns that the group wore in the 70's.
Favorite Colour: None in particular, but she tends to wear bright colours in spring and summer such as yellows, whites and oranges, and in the winter/autumn, she plumps for blacks, red, shades of brown and grey.
Favorite Food: As her father loves to fish, it has to be freshly fried fish that was caught by her father and cooked by her mother.
Pets: Because of the amount of time that she spends away from home, she doesn't have any at the moment, but loves fish and in the past has had salt water aquariums.
Collections: Lynda loves drinking glasses and try's to collect one from each tour. Unfortunately, her collection is not as big as what it used to be because of the earthquakes that have happened in Los Angeles.
Sports: Lynda loves to Ice Skate and to Ski and to play Pool. She also tells me that she would love to learn to play golf.
Dislikes: Not many really, one of her biggest ones, though is heat - Lynda loves a colder climate; probably why she loves England so much!
I hope that you have got an insight to the person that is Lynda Laurence. I'm privileged to call her a friend.
Kate Ashford
Click HERE to see Lynda's Discography
Click HERE to go back to The Supremes 1997 page
