Fellow shoppers may never realize that the pleasant 60-year-old woman buying her groceries at a suburban Los Angeles supermarket was America's number one child star in the 1940's.

Margaret O'Brien survived the plague of so many other child stars- she wasn't involved with the law or with drugs. In fact, she grew up to lead a very happy, normal life.

Her mother got O'Brien her first film role in 1940, when she was three. That next year, MGM took notice and put her under contract. Although she didn't sing and dance like Shirley Temple, and was not funny or tough like Jane Withers, MGM saw another quality in O'Brien- sincerity. She was, and acted like, a real child.

Her first big film was 1942's Journey for Margaret. Other hits followed, like Madame Curie (1943), Jane Eyre (1944), and Little Women (1949). And what movie fan can ever forget the memorable scene from Meet Me in St. Lousi (1948), when a sobbing O'Brien is comforted by Judy Garland with the song, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?"

Endearing, emothional roles. Most of her films had a similar formula - each had a tear-jerker scene with O'Brien as the weak little girl and the leading man as the protective father figure.

As the 1950's approached her film roles diminished and television appearances on talk and variety shows increased. In fact, her most dramatic and highly publicized role during this time was a personal one - when her mother remarried. O'Brien refused to kiss her new stepfather.

In 1960, she made her last film, Heller in Pink Tights. She then retired from acting, but still granted interviews to newspapers and television programs. Her new focus was on being a wife and mother.

In 1977, she was able to access the $1 million trust fund that was set up for her, from which she continues to live comfortably. He last public appearances were in the late 1970's and early 1980's, when she rode on floats in the Los Angeles Christmas Parade.

Although she is now a mature woman and the mother of a grown daughter, when talking with her on the phone and listening to that wonderfully soft, wistful voice, one cannot help but think of that sweet child in the 1940's.