Sally Benson (1899-1966) originally wrote the stories that comprise Meet Me In St. Louis as short vignettes for The New Yorker magazine entitled "5135 Kensington." These were published in the magazine from June 14, 1941 through May 23, 1942. Originally 8 vignettes, the stories were so popular that Ms. Benson would add 4 more stories and compile them in book form, each chapter representing a month of the year from 1903 - 1904. The book was published by Random House as "Meet Me In St. Louis" in 1942, titled after the film which was in the very early stages of script writing at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. During this time, Sally was at MGM working on an early draft of the screenplay. Although her work on the screenplay would not be used, Sally continued to write screenplays for the movies.

Sally based "5135 Kensington" after her life on that street in St. Louis, Missouri where she and her family lived ("the Smith family", Benson was her married name). Far from the gingerbread Victorian beauty depicted in the film, the home was a typical turn-of-the century city home (closer to the Victorian and Edwardian homes one sees today in San Francisco). Unfortunately the house was demolished in December 1994, after falling into decay. Five hundred bricks were saved from the site for historical purposes and are probably located at the St. Louis Missouri History Museum.

Sally was a popular author and screenwriter, contributing to the screenplays for Hitchcock's Shadow Of A Doubt (1943), Anna And The King Of Siam (1946 - for which she was nominated for an Academy Award), Bus Stop (1953), and National Velvet (1944) among others. Her other series of short stories entitled "Junior Miss" were extremely popular as well.