Early Life and Family
Cornell was born as Lydia Korniloff in El Paso, Texas, the eldest daughter of concert violinists Irma Jean Stowe, a great granddaughter of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Gregory Jacob Korniloff, (born 30 January 1917 in Vladivostok; died May 1977), a graduate of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Arts, who was later assistant concertmaster of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, Cornell is the oldest sister of Paul Korniloff, a piano prodigy who died of an overdose of narcotics, and Kathryn "Kathy" Korniloff, co-founder of the band Two Nice Girls, and since 1995 a sound designer and composer.
While a nine-year old fourth grade student at Mesita Elementary School, Cornell was chosen as El Paso's Little Miss Cotton in March 1963. In 1966 Cornell and her family moved to Scarsdale, New York, where she attended both Scarsdale Junior High School and Scarsdale High School, graduating in 1971. Her class mates included Dan Biederman and Eve Ensler.
About 1972 Cornell enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she eventually studied drama, English, Russian, and Spanish. During the summer between Sophomore and Junior year in college, she worked at the famed recording studio Caribou Ranch in Nederland, Colorado. Before graduation, Cornell was the road manager for musician Michael Murphy. These adventures will be described in an upcoming humor book series Cornell is writing. About May 1976 Cornell graduated from UC Boulder with a Bachelor of Science in Business, with majors in both advertising and English/drama.
By the time of her father's death in May 1977, Cornell had joined the rest of the Korniloff family, who had been living in The Hague, the Netherlands since mid-1975. Soon after her mother and siblings moved back to El Paso, Texas.
By 1978 Cornell had moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and had a job for three months at a recording studio, before being employed by Jack Webb Productions as a secretary-production assistant. Still known as Lydia Korniloff, Cornell worked as an assistant to the producer on the television movie Little Mo, a biography of tennis star Maureen Connolly.
Read more about this topic: Lydia Cornell
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