The Man In the Moon

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Filming Locations

1. Old Methodist Church – 9110 Texas Street, Robeline
2. Robeline Cemetery – LA Hwy 6, Robeline
3. Bob Welch Farm – LA Hwy 6, Robeline
4. Trant House (Private) – Along Cane River across Pratt's Bridge, near Point Place
5. Kisatchie Falls – Just off Hwy 118, Robeline

• Natchitoches Country Club
• Cane River bank

• Downtown Many – San Antonio Avenue

In 1991, the Many Police Department assisted when Hollywood came to Louisiana to film "The Man in the Moon," featuring 14-year-old Reese Witherspoon in her first starring role. Downtown Many became a movie set as San Antonio Avenue was closed to traffic and transformed into a 1950s streetscape. Older model cars were brought in and parked at angles along the street, while storefronts were recreated to match the era.

Gwendell Desmond Kingrey, known to his friends as "Gwen," was a 16-year-old looking forward to his junior year at Natchitoches High School. Movie audiences would later know him as "Court Foster," the boy that sisters Dani Trant (Reese Witherspoon) and Maureen Trant (Emily Warfield) both fell in love with in the 1991 film.

On July 9, 1959, Gwen was killed instantly in a tractor accident in Natchitoches Parish near Clarence. The accident occurred about 9 a.m. in a pasture where Gwen and another youth were each driving tractors pulling large mowers to cut grass. One wheel of Gwen's tractor apparently struck a stump, causing the vehicle to lurch and throw him beneath the bush-hog blades.

Funeral services for Gwen were officiated by Rev. A. E. Wingfield—the father of the movie's screenwriter, Jenny Wingfield. Jenny wrote the screenplay based on her own experiences and was portrayed as "Dani" in the movie. Her father appeared in the film as well, played by Sam Waterston, though not in the role of a preacher.

Much of the movie was filmed in Robeline, where both screenwriter Jenny Wingfield and the Kingrey children lived during the 1950s.

Gwen was buried in the Fort Jessup Cemetery. He was survived by:

• His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Kingrey
• Two brothers, Donald and Ronald Kingrey (twins)
• Grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Maricelli of Fort Jessup and Mrs. E. E. Kingrey of DeQuincy

Note: The Kingrey family moved to Sabine Parish after Gwen's death. His twin brothers later graduated from Many High School. One of the twins returned from a tour in Vietnam and worked for both the Many Police Department and the Sabine Sheriff's Office.

Set in the Louisiana countryside, the film follows Danielle "Dani" Trant, a spoiled 14-year-old with few responsibilities who spends her free time swimming at the local waterhole. There she meets Court Foster, her 17-year-old neighbor who, following his father's death, has become the head of a struggling farm household with two younger brothers. Despite Dani's innocent crush and attempts at romance, Court wisely keeps their relationship platonic, recognizing the age difference and his family responsibilities.

When Dani's mother requires late-term hospitalization, her older sister Maureen returns home from Duke University. The mature, college-aged Maureen naturally attracts Court's romantic attention, creating a painful triangle as Dani must confront her jealousy—a situation made even more tragic when fate delivers a cruel blow to the young man both sisters have come to care for.

This document preserves the memory of Gwendell "Gwen" Kingrey and the true events that inspired this touching film about first love, family, and loss in 1950s Louisiana.