Cross Creek

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Marsh Turner

Norton Baskin

Ellie Turner

Geechee

Paul

Floyd Turner

Tim's Wife

Leroy

Charles Rawlings

Tim

Postal Clerk

Man in the Rocking Chair

Store Keeper

Preston Turner

Mary Turner

Minister

Sheriff

Max Perkins

The fiddle tunes Rip Torn's character plays, and the style in which they are played, are authentic to the region and era. They are based closely on recordings of Cush Holston, an old time fiddler who was from rural north Florida and recorded at an advanced age at a folk festival in 1960. The tune Torn sings is Holston's "Coon Dog," and the instrumental he plays before this is also from Holston, "Have a Hood Time Tonight." The actual playing for the film was done by a Florida old time musician who had studied and researched the music of Holston.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: [voiceover] I had become a part of Cross Creek. I was more than a writer. I was a wife, a friend, a part of the earth. Who owns Cross Creek? The earth may be borrowed, not bought, may be used, not owned. It gives itself in response to love and tenderness, offers its seasonal flowering and fruiting. Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seed, and beyond all, to time.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: [voiceover] My journey to maturity began in New York, in 1928. I was married to Charles Rawlings, the newspaper man and yachting enthusiast. I had been trying to write stories that I thought would be most likely to sell - gothic romances were extremely popular - and I had written dozens. I was desperate to express myself. Even as a child I'd been consumed with the desire to be a writer.