Benson, Sally, 1897-1972

Sally Benson (September 3, 1897 – July 19, 1972) Benson was born in St. Louis; attended the Mary Institute until she moved with her family to New York. She attended the Horace Mann School, studied dance and then started working when she was 17 years old. At age 19, she married Reynolds "Babe" Benson. The couple had a daughter, Barbara, and later divorced; began her career writing weekly interview articles and film reviews for the New York Morning Telegraph. Between 1929 and 1941, she published 99 stories in The New Yorker, including nine signed with her pseudonym Esther Evarts; Her stories "The Overcoat" and "Suite 2049" were selected as O. Henry prize stories for 1935 and 1936; best known for her semi-autobiographical stories collected in Junior Miss and Meet Me in St. Louis; She died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, aged 74.