Mary McClain was born 71 years ago and was raised in the wilds of West County in what is now Chesterfield. Her family did most of their shopping in the nearby small town of Creve Coeur.

They knew the merchants with whom they did business. Of course, in those days, it was a different world. Most stores were small, and if you were a steady customer who needed credit, you got it.

Not that Mary's family asked for credit. They paid cash for everything. Her parents had come of age during the Great Depression, and they were not financially frivolous.

Mary married at 19. She and her husband raised three kids. They were divorced after 21 years of marriage. By then, Mary had gone to the University of Missouri-St. Louis and earned a degree in English. After the divorce, she supported herself working as a proofreader and copy editor, mostly for companies that produced church bulletins and other religious publications.

Mary was in her early 40s when she married her second husband, Ivan. He was a body shop manager. Mary had inherited her parents' frugality, and Ivan was of the same mind-set. They had one credit card, and they used it sparingly. Not for gasoline, not for groceries, but for major purchases. They paid off their balances as quickly as they could.

After Ivan retired from the body shop, he went to work part time at the meat counter at the Schnucks in Richmond Heights.

He died in December of 2008. He and Mary had been married for 26 years. She put a death notice in this newspaper. It ran for several days. It cost about $800. Mary charged it to the credit card.

As always, she planned to pay it off quickly.

By the way, she could have paid the entire bill from her savings account, but she was raised not to dip into savings unless it was absolutely necessary.

Mary and Ivan had been leasing a house in Richmond Heights. The lease ran out a couple of months after Ivan's death, and one of Mary's sons invited her to live with him and his family in St. Charles. She filled out a change of address form at the post office and moved in with her son.

She stayed with her son for about a year. She had never meant to stay there forever. She found an apartment. It's in a big complex. Nice, but not fancy. She was at her computer one day, looking for furnishings, and she found a wall-hanging she liked. It cost about $50. She tried to order it online with her credit card. The charge was not approved.

She called the credit card company and was told to call the bank that had issued the card. That would be the HSBC Bank in Las Vegas. She called the bank and was told that her account had been turned over to the Sunrise Credit Services in Farmingdale, N.Y. She called the collection agency.

It turned out she had not paid the final $92 of the charge for the death notice. She explained that she had not received a bill since she moved to St. Charles. Maybe the bill had not been forwarded. She had not thought about it because she had not used the credit card since she moved.

The person told her that with interest, she now owed $287, but if she were willing to pay half of that, the collection agency would write the rest off. She agreed and paid half. But her card was still invalid.

She applied for another one and was rejected. The letter seemed like gibberish. "Our decision was based in whole or in part on information provided by a consumer-reporting agency. The consumer reporting agency played no part in our decision and is unable to provide specific reasons for our decision." The agency was in Atlanta.

She went to her local bank, where she has a savings account of approximately $30,000. Her application for a credit card was rejected because of "Delinquent Past or Credit History with Others." The letter cited a consumer reporting agency in Chester, Pa.

By this time, Mary was frustrated. "I have no trouble paying my bills," she told me. She drives an old car. Social Security and a small pension provide her with a monthly income that exceeds her monthly expenses.

Also, from living frugally and making some wise investments, Mary has a brokerage account in the low six figures at Edward Jones. She called her broker. Actually, his secretary.

Finally, somebody who knew her. Almost like the old days.

Last week, Mary got a MasterCard through Edward Jones. She has not yet used it.