On this day (July 18) in 2025, country singer-songwriter Helen Cornelius died in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 83.
Although best known as Jim Ed Brown’s duet partner during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Cornelius also danced, acted, and played several instruments. She even starred in the 2014 family holiday film, A Belle for Christmas.
Videos by American Songwriter
Today, we’re honoring her life and career on the first anniversary of her death.
About Helen Cornelius
Born Helen Lorene Johnson on December 6, 1941, in Hannibal, Missouri, she grew up on a farm outside Monroe City.
Making her musical debut at just five years old, Cornelius won several talent contests and formed a singing trio with sisters Judy and Sharon. The three siblings often performed locally.
After high school, Helen married Lewis Cornelius. The couple had three children, and she worked as a secretary while raising her family.
However, she could never stay away from music for long. In the late 1960s, she returned to the road with her backing band.
Juggling marriage, motherhood and career with songwriting, Cornelius continued mailing her songs to publishers in New York and Nashville. In 1970, that work paid off when she scored a writing deal with ScreenGems. She penned songs for The Oak Ridge Boys and Reba McEntire.
Once ScreenGems folded, Cornelius sent a tape to Jerry Crutchfield and began working for MCA Music. Later, he helped her land a deal with Columbia Records.
The Jim Ed Brown Years
After recording two unsuccessful solo singles, Helen Cornelius teamed up with country singer Jim Ed Brown. In 1976, they recorded the duet “I Don’t Want to Have to Marry You”.
It seems Brown was the missing ingredient to her success, as the song spent two weeks atop Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart.
This was the beginning of one of country music’s most successful male-female pairings, releasing 11 Top 20 hits and seven Top 10 hits over the next five years.
While they never again reached the pinnacle, Helen and Jim Ed came close with the number-two hits “Saying Hello, Saying I Love You, Saying Goodbye” and “Lying in Love with You”.
They would prove an award-winning combo, winning the CMA Vocal Duo of the Year award in 1977 and scoring a Grammy nomination for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.
Helen Cornelius continued as a solo artist after parting ways with Brown in 1981. Forming her own band, Southern Spirit, she toured with Conway Twitty and the Statler Brothers and reached number 30 on the country charts with “Whatcha Doin’ After Midnight, Baby”.
Also starring in the Annie, Get Your Gun road show, Cornelius opened Nashville South, a dinner theater in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in the early 1990s. In the 2000s, she began performing regularly at the Jim Stafford Theater in Branson, Missouri.
Photo courtesy of X/Twitter