The production ran into budgetary problems halfway through. Several background extras were brought to a New Orleans location, fitted for costumes, fed dinner, and then sent home without pay because their scene had been cut. Some New Orleans retailers complained that thousands of dollars worth of clothes were returned unused because the scenes they were bought for were never filmed.
Writer/director Shainee Gabel adapted the screenplay from the previously unpublished novel "Off Magazine Street" by Ronald Everett Capps. Capps' son, Grayson Capps, appears in the film and contributed six songs to its soundtrack.
Geraldine asks if Lorraine finally kicked them out. Through the smoke from Bobby's cigarette we see Lawson light his cigarette. After Bobby says God wouldn't let that happen Lawson lights the cigarette again.
Pursy finds unsent letters her mother wrote to her. Among them: a song she wrote for Pursy's father, Bobby Long.Pursy decides not to sell the house. She graduates high school and goes to New Orleans Universaty.She walks along the streets as Bobby did in the beginning of the movie, and goes to the cemetary. She puts a book between her mother's tombstone and Bobby's tombstone- it is "A Love Song for Bobby Long" by Lawson Pines, from which he read as narrator along the movie. Lawson comes to the cemetary and holds Purcy's hand.