Background
As noted in the Special Features on the Steel Magnolias DVD, the story is based on the death of Robert Harling's younger sister, Susan Harling Robinson, a diabetic. As her best friend and closest sibling, Harling found it difficult to cope with her death. His friends advised him to write about his feelings as a coping method. It began as a short story and evolved into a full-length play due to the complexity of the relationships and emotions that existed within the characters.
Harling felt it important to include the way the characters utilized humor and lighthearted conversations to cope with the seriousness of the underlying situations. Harling wanted the playgoers to have a true experience of what his family endured during his sister's hospitalization. One of the ways he did this was by employing the nurses, doctors and other hospital staff who worked with his sister as characters in the movie portraying their real-life roles.
The story is set in a fictional Northwestern Louisiana parish, Chinquapin.
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