CMA Award Winner Helen Cornelius Passes

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Helen Cornelius

Singer Helen Cornelius died on Friday at age 83.

With vocal partner Jim Ed Brown, she earned the 1977 CMA Award for Vocal Duo of the Year. The team was also nominated for this honor in 1978 and 1979. Its string of top-10 hits included “I Don’t Want to Have to Marry You” (1976), “Saying Hello, Saying I Love You, Saying Goodbye” (1977), the Grammy-nominated “If the World Ran Out of Love Tonight” (1978), “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” (1979), “Lying in Love With You” (1979), “Fools” (1979) and “Morning Comes to Early” (1980).

Born Helen Johnson, she was a native of Missouri who began singing at an early age. As a high-school student, she formed a trio with sisters Judy and Sharon. The siblings competed successfully on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour TV show in 1960.

She married truck driver Lewis Cornelius and channeled her music ambitions into songwriting while working as a housewife and raising children. She was signed as a staff writer by Screen Gems in 1970, and her songs were eventually recorded by such stars as The Oak Ridge Boys, Reba McEntire, Charlie Louvin & Melba Montgomery, Jeannie C. Riley, Lynn Anderson, Barbara Fairchild and Connie Smith, among others.

With her husband and three children in tow, she moved to Music City. Established Grand Ole Opry star Jim Ed Brown was introduced to the newcomer by RCA Records producer Bob Ferguson. The duo clicked with such sexy tracks as “I’ll Never Be Free” (1978), “The Bedroom” (1980) and “Don’t Bother to Knock” (1981) and co-starred as hosts of his Nashville On the Road nationally syndicated TV series in 1976-80.

Brown and Cornelius had an affair, which became embarrassingly public when they broke up in 1980. She became a solo artist with charted singles released by the RCA, Elektra and Ameri-Can labels. She released her debut solo LP in 1985 on Dot Records.

Helen Cornelius became the opening act for The Statler Brothers and for Conway Twitty. In 1984, she starred in a road company production of Annie Get Your Gun that played 64 cities. Cornelius briefly reunited with Jim Ed Brown for a tour in 1988. In 1991, she opened a theater called Nashville South in Gatlinburg. She performed there nightly for the next five years.

Returning to her native Missouri, Cornelius settled in Branson to headline at the Jim Stafford Theater. In recent years, she has often been featured on Larry Black’s Country Family Reunion series on RFD-TV.

Helen Cornelius passed away in Nashville. No cause of death has been reported. She is survived by her children, Christy and Dennis Cornelius, by two grandchildren, by brother Elvin Johnson, and by her beloved dog, Bella.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, PO Box 5014, Hagerstown, MD 21741 (MichaelJFox.org). Visitation will be held on Friday, July 25 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. with a service immediately following at the Williamson Memorial Funeral Home, 3009 Columbia Ave, Franklin, TN 37064. A private burial will be held after for family and close friends.

Robert K Oermann
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