Vivian Gibson was raised on Bernard Street in Mill Creek Valley. She started writing short stories about her childhood memories in a segregated St. Louis community after retiring at age sixty-six. The Library of Congress selected Gibson's memoir The Last Children of Mill Creek to represent the state of Missouri's literary heritage at the 2023 National Book Festival in Washington, DC. The Missouri Library Association named her 2022 Author of the Year, and the Missouri Humanities Council honored her with a Literary Achievement Award in 2020. The Last Children of Mill Creek is an essential book for anyone interested in urban development, race, and community history―or for anyone who was once a child.