Wilder Days dinner featured guests from “Little House on the Prairie” and screening

Over the past half decade or so, Mansfield has become a go-to destination for stars of the “Little House on the Prairie” TV show.
The year 2025, which marks the 50th anniversary of the annual Wilder Days celebration, is no exception.
The sixth annual Wilder Day Dinner, held Friday night at Mansfield High School, played host to fans and stars alike. Featured guests included Dean Butler (Almanzo Wilder), Charlotte Stewart (Miss Beadle) and Wendi Lou Lee (Baby Grace Ingalls), the most “Little House” actors ever present for the event. In addition to enjoying a meal with fans, the trio spoke about their time on the show.
Special this year was a preview screening of “Little House Homecoming,” a new documentary that celebrates the TV show’s 50th anniversary with a look at the many locations that Laura Ingalls Wilder called home, interspersed with commentary from TV show cast members, fans and employees at numerous Wilder-related sites. Mansfield saw its fair share of representation with shots of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum, as well as commentary from several of its employees.
The Rev. Nicholas Inman, executive director of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum, introduced the documentary, which was screened in the Mansfield High School gymnasium.
“It’s wonderful to come together and celebrate the legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder, here in the heart of the nation,” he said. “It’s only appropriate in Mansfield, the center of her heart, that we can celebrate her this week.”
Johnathan Parker, who created, produced and directed the documentary, spoke a few words before the screening began.
“This is my fifth trip to Mansfield,” he said. “We visited for the first time three summers ago, which really kind of started what you’re going to see today.”
Parker went on to relate that the idea came to him during a road trip from their home in Virginia with his wife, three children and small minivan.
He met with several Wilder home directors on their travels and hit it off, learning along the way that the 50th anniversary of the TV show was coming up shortly. “The 50th was the perfect time to do it,” he said. “We’ve got to shoot now.”
After the screening, those in attendance who were staying for the dinner were funneled into the school’s commons area for the meal, complete with background dinner music provided by David Wilson on Pa’s fiddle.
A panel and Q & A with Parker and the Little House actors followed, moderated by Dean Butler.
They recounted a number of amusing anecdotes, as well as their personal thoughts on the Wilder fandom.
Charlotte Stewart spoke of her audition for what she thought would be “just another western.” “I walked into the audition room, and there’s all these women there in old dress clothes, bonnets and long dresses,” she said.
“And I’m in my normal tie-dye t-shirt and jeans. I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve made another mistake.’” But when she slammed her hand down on the table and yelled “Quiet!” the producers knew they had their Miss Beadle. “I loved doing that show. I loved working with the kids. Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, I loved them all. They were professional actors. They weren’t just kids.”
“Michael said that people will be watching this program long after we’re gone,” Butler said. “And at 25 years old, when he said that to me, I’m sort of thinking, ‘Wow, there’s a little bit of a hype here. I don’t know that I can really buy into this.’ Michael knew this business. He knew how to touch people. This was in an industry that’s always trying to be all things together. It’s not that way now, because everything is much more finely cut up in terms of audience preferences. But in the days of network television, we were trying to appeal to everyone. Michael was very clear about this. On another day, he said, ‘I know that there’s a huge segment of the audience that has zero interest in what we’re doing. They couldn’t care less, and I’m fine with that. Because I know that there’s another segment of the audience that can’t get enough.’ It made an extraordinary commitment to the audience, and that commitment is about community, family, communication, grace under fire, acceptance, forgiveness, so many beautiful things.”
Wendi Lou Lee recalled some of her own favorite moments, such as one of the show’s Christmas episodes where she saw (fake) snow for the first time and danced with Ray Bolger, the actor who portrayed the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz. When it came to her feelings toward the Wilder fandom, she said, “I see this love in everyone’s eyes. It’s this thing that brings us all together. It’s not a common thing to walk to a place you’ve never been and see 500 people that all love the same thing. It’s really special.”
“I think the most basic need that we have as people is for attachment,” Parker said.
“We’re all looking to be part of something. You go to these events, you see a bunch of people that want to feel like they’re a part of something. You go to these places, it’s in the middle of July, and there are people waiting eight hours in line to get an autograph. I think Laura Ingalls Wilder, her books make us all feel like we’re really a part of something. That’s something [the documentary] really celebrates.”
When asked after the conclusion of the program about his feelings toward the Mansfield area in particular, Parker heaped high praise on the town that the Wilders lived out their final days in.
“It’s a beautiful community,” he told the Journal in a brief one-on-one interview.
“The people are so generous and kind. Seeing the way Wilder Days comes together, the dinner comes together, it’s very clear that there’s this incredible community spirit. A lot of communities that we filmed the documentary in are small towns. I live in a one-stoplight town myself, and I really love the way you know your neighbors, you care about each other, and you’re seeking to make a place with them. That’s really cool.”
While a specific date has not been finalized as of this writing, “Little House Homecoming” is targeted for release sometime before Thanksgiving.
The latest updates on the documentary can be found at littlehousehomecoming.com.