I don't know how quickly the ground freezes in St. Louis but as long as the little seedlings have adequate moisture deep in the soil, they should be able to harden off before winter gets really bad for you guys down there.
You can also do a dormant seeding, before the ground freezes for some of your questionable areas. :)

dormant seeding? that would be sowing seed now?

Dormant seeding is sowing seed any time from when it gets way too cold for it to sprout (which might be now, but I'd hold off a bit to make sure it doesn't pop warm again) right up to just before it warms enough to sprout (call it very early April in my locale).

Generally, most of us drop it early enough that it has plenty of time to pre-germinate. When I did it, I dropped in February just before a major snowstorm so it would get settled in, dampened, and hidden from any seed-eating birds or mammals.

When the snow melted, the seed had settled into the soil, and it sprouted in mid April.

I found this link where ksu studied dormant seeding. they had best results with seeds put down in late winter.

http://www.johnson.ksu.edu/p.aspx?tabid=1302

Here is a link that might be useful: dormant seed study

This post was edited by chris_chicago on Tue, Nov 18, 14 at 15:23

No further mention of the Dec., Jan. sowing from the article mentioned above:
" Ratings on May 18 showed no difference between the February and March planting with 80 percent of the soil covered by turf. These seedling stands were thick enough to prevent most crabgrass, and mature enough to withstand the summer conditions without supplemental watering".