Sally Benson was an American author of short stories and screenplays. She was born Sara Smith in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved to New York City late in her childhood. After graduating from Horace Mann School, she married Reynolds "Babe" Benson and began publishing short stories. She is best known for her semi-autobiographical collections Meet Me in St. Louis and Junior Miss, each first published as a series of 12 short stories in The New Yorker. She died in Woodland Hills, California, in 1972.