DUNCAN, Okla. – Oscar-winning movie director Ron Howard says he still feels connected to the Oklahoma town where he was born but never lived, after visiting the now-shuttered hospital of his birth.
This week, Howard posted a photo of himself on Facebook posing outside the boarded-up building in Duncan, 75 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.
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Howard says his family lived in Biloxi, Mississippi, but that his mother wanted to give birth in Duncan, her hometown. Howard says he never lived there but feels “a connection to the town and people.”
“This now shattered building was once the hospital where I was born in Duncan Oklahoma,” Howard said on Facebook. “My dad was in the US Air Force at the time and my mom preferred to have me in her home town rather than the base hospital in Biloxi. So I never actually resided in Duncan tho I definitely feel a connection to the town and the people there.”
The family later moved to California where Howard’s father, Rance Howard, was an actor. His mother, Jean Speegle Howard, also acted. Both appeared in their son’s movies “Cocoon” and “Apollo 13.”
Jean Howard died in 2000. Rance Howard died in 2017.
