From Belmont to the Oscars

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BY CINDY LANGE-KUBICK / Lincoln Journal Star

Hilary Swank, just a girl from a Washington trailer park with a dream?  Not quite. The Million Dollar Baby got her start far from Bellingham, Wash. -- in Lincoln's Belmont neighborhood.

Baby girl Swank was born at Lincoln General Hospital July 30, 1974, according to Lincoln Star archives.

The future two-time Academy Award winner went home to 3335 Portia St., Apt. 2C, on the far north side of town. And she stayed for three years, according to city directories.

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Swank

Swank

Lori Lodwig, who now lives in 2C, wasn't overly impressed. "I don't even know for sure who she is," said the mother of 2½-year-old Lillian Wittmuss.

The young mother doesn't get to many movies — or watch much TV. And she didn't hear Swank's Academy Award acceptance speech Sunday: "I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream."

Lodwig is too busy with a daughter who has a dream of her own. "She wants to be a pro wrestler right now. That's her main goal in life."

Maybe Swank hadn't started dreaming during her Lincoln years. But in 1977, the family moved a few blocks to 1110 Butler Ave., again according to a city directory.

"That's the weirdest" said Nanci Wells, who has lived in the white house on Butler with her husband, Bill, since 1980.

But it's amazing how many famous people have Nebraska roots, she said. Nick Nolte. Johnny Carson. Dick Cavett. Marlon Brando.

"They don't stay here and they never come back, but that's OK."

Wells didn't know about the Swank connection until a reporter phoned. "I told my friend about it and she said, ‘You should put it (the house) on e-Bay right now."

Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com.