re: Missouri is a partially Southern state

From just over the river in Alton, IL (whose editor/writer Elijah Lovejoy was killed and the paper's press thrown in the Mississippi in the early 1800s due to his anti-slavery stance) to the southern mountains and woods, I'd say you have a good argument with the state being, at least partially, southern.

Any further north and to the west, and the state dramatically changes to midwestern and farming communities.

I like St. Louis though. It is a great sports town.