Kathy Cornelius

Kathy Cornelius, born Kathy McKinnon in Boston on 27 October 1932, became one of the defining figures of the early LPGA Tour and the champion of the 1956 U.S. Women's Open. She grew up splitting time between coastal Massachusetts, family roots in southeastern Kentucky, and Florida, where she took her first golf lesson at age 13 after spotting a notice for summer classes with Lake Worth professional Vic Bass. She rode her bicycle to the local nine-hole course, studied swing books such as Alex Morrison's, and watched visiting professionals including Tony Penna.

As a teenager she competed in Florida junior events and traveled with her mother to the 1950 U.S. Girls' Junior in Hamburg, New York. At Florida Southern College she studied journalism and, when the men's golf team was short a player, filled in for matches, including against Stetson. In 1952 she won the Women's Southern Amateur. In 1953 she married golf professional Bill Cornelius, turned professional, and for a time focused on club life at Lake Worth Country Club and starting a family. Their first daughter, Karen, was born in 1954.

In 1956 she joined the LPGA Tour in earnest and immediately won. First came the St. Petersburg Open, then, in her first start in the national championship, the U.S. Women's Open at Northland Country Club in Duluth, Minnesota. After a final-round struggle that left her tied with amateur Barbara McIntire, Cornelius won the 18-hole playoff 75 to 82. Karen turned two on the day of that victory. That same season she also partnered Beverly Hanson to win the Hot Springs 4-Ball Invitational. She later added LPGA titles at the Cosmopolitan Open (1959), Tippecanoe Open (1961), Bluegrass Invitational (1972), and Sealy-Faberge Classic (1973), the last of which paid what was then the richest first prize in women's golf. She finished eighth on the 1973 money list, her career best, and made the top 20 of the money list twelve times.

Cornelius was a steady presence on major leaderboards, with about twenty top-ten finishes in majors, including runner-up at the 1960 Titleholders Championship and the 1965 U.S. Women's Open. She and Bill raised their daughters on the road in an era when prize money rarely paid for air travel. Bill often worked part-time for Golf Pride grips while supporting her career. In 1981 their younger daughter, Kay, won the U.S. Girls' Junior at age 14, making Kathy and Kay the only mother-daughter pair to win USGA championships, a distinction they still hold.

After moving to Arizona in the early 1970s, the couple ran a driving range and later founded Magique Golf, a club company they operated from 1985 to 1999. Kathy taught part-time at Rio Salado Golf Course in Tempe. In 2017 she was inducted into the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame. Bill died around 2019. In later years she lived in Chandler, still taking practice swings when she passed a mirror and using an old pitching wedge as a walking stick. She died on 28 September 2026 at age 93. A committal was scheduled for 13 October 2026 at Valley of the Sun Mortuary in Chandler.