From the very beginning, HELEN CORNELIUS has had a vision of her destiny. As she told Bill Littleton of Performance Magazine, "Belief in oneself is probably the most important ingredient to success that there is, because if you believe in yourself, then nothing is gonna knock you down. I'm ready to fly."
If he had know her, Mark Twain would have liked a lot of the traits deeply ingrained in HELEN'S character. The kind of spirit of adventure he so often wrote about; the determination to meet life's challenges head-on; the character and positive belief in herself that Joseph and Lu Elsie Johnson imparted to HELEN LORENE and her seven brothers and sisters.
HELEN grew up on a farm in Missouri, where she listened to radio's Grand Ole Opry and sang with her sisters, accompanied by her brothers who played in country bands. Since her musical debut at the age of five, HELEN has won numerous talent contests, including three winning appearances on The Ted Mack Amateur Hour in 1970.
It was her songwriting that initially swung open the doors along the corridors of Nashville's Music Row. By the mid-70's, HELEN had songs recorded by a number of major artists, including The Oak Ridge Boys, Reba McEntire, Jeannie C. Riley, Connie Smith, Charlie Louvin & Melba Montgomery, LaCosta, and Dottsy... just to mention a few. While it was her writing that first won her major credibility, it was the voice that RCA Record executives heard that won HELEN CORNELIUS her first major recording contract in 1975. With it, history was about to be made.