Friends Helping Wells Face the Struggle : Pop music: The former Motown star is fighting throat cancer and a slide into poverty. Colleagues are rallying behind her.

Singer Mary Wells, best known for such exhilarating ‘60s Motown hits as “My Guy” and “The One Who Really Loves You,” was seething with frustration because she’s having trouble getting her point across--once again.

Communicating is now difficult for the veteran performer because a recent tracheotomy robbed her--at least temporarily--of her power of speech.

The operation was done last month, when doctors determined that Wells, who’d been having throat discomfort for months, has cancer--a tumor in her larynx. It’s unlikely she’ll ever sing again professionally.

At the moment, the 47-year-old singer either writes her thoughts on paper or mouths words, requiring others to read her lips--which is difficult for the inexperienced and woefully frustrating for Wells.

Mouthing her words, Wells, currently residing in a downtown Los Angeles hotel, said Monday, “I can’t get used to this. You can’t imagine how hard this is for me.”

Thanks to such striking hits as “My Guy” and “You Beat Me to the Punch,” Wells was one of Motown’s key early stars.

Along with the Temptations, the Supremes, the Miracles and the Marvelettes, the Detroit native helped define the label’s pop-R&B; sound. After her heyday she parlayed those hits into a career mostly on the oldies circuit.

Though far from rich, Wells was living comfortably this year in a three-bedroom Van Nuys townhouse with Curtis Womack, brother of singer-songwriter Bobby Womack and father of her 4-year-old daughter.

But when her throat started to go bad a few months ago, her life fell apart. No longer able to do concerts, Wells found her income drying up. The same with her savings. She and Womack subsequently broke up. Last month, while Wells was in the hospital, her landlord evicted her for nonpayment of rent, she indicated.

That’s not all.

Wells has no health insurance to help pay the mounting medical bills. She alerted her friend Joyce McRae, a trustee of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in Washington, D.C., whose many functions include helping struggling musicians.

“I found out about Mary’s illness while she was still in the hospital,” said McRae, who was with Wells during the interview. “I called everybody in the media I could think of to put the word out that Mary needed financial help.”

So far there have been contributions from Diana Ross ($15,000), Rod Stewart ($10,000), Bruce Springsteen ($10,000) and the Temptations ($5,000). All have been sent to the foundation, specifically earmarked for Wells.

Wells has even received a pledge of future support from Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown. Like many veteran Motown singers, Wells reportedly hadn’t been on good terms with Gordy for years. But when ex-Supreme Mary Wilson, who also has had battles with Gordy, contacted him, Gordy promised to help financially.

“He said he’d do whatever he could to help Mary,” Wilson said in a separate interview. “That’s good of him because he’s under no obligation to her.”

Wells looked healthy and robust during the interview. If she didn’t have the tube in her throat, you wouldn’t suspect anything was wrong.

Aside from the frustration about communication, she also seemed to be in an upbeat mood.

The singer started an intensive six-week radiation treatment plan last week at the Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Hospital at USC.

If treatment is successful, she may be able to avoid having her larynx removed. Currently, she and her daughter are residing in the hotel, which is 10 minutes away from the center.

It’s not clear how much money Wells will need. “Medical and housing expenses will be high,” McRae said. “Mary can’t work now. A lot of veteran R&B; musicians like her live from day to day. When they get ill, they can’t work and they have no income.”

Wells has recorded for various record companies since leaving Motown, but with little commercial success. Her last album, recorded in 1988, was released only in England. She recorded her last major U.S. album for Epic Records in 1981.

One of the sad ironies of Wells’ situation is that the veteran singer was on the verge of making a record that might have revived her recording career. The singer said she’d been contacted by Springsteen to sing a duet with him on the album he’s currently recording here in Los Angeles.

Wells said the financial and emotional support that came immediately from her colleagues has altered her negative opinion of a business she often feels used her up and cast her aside.

“People say this is a cruel business--and it is,” she said, again mouthing the words. “But a lot of people in the business do have hearts.”