You thought right. It was indeed Margaret O'Brien who sought out a kneeling cow before midnight on Christmas Eve in the 1948 classic "Tenth Avenue Angel."

O'Brien was, in fact, the angel of the title, a young girl named Flavia Mills, living with her impoverished extended family in Depression-era Manhattan.

It tells of the return of her aunt's fiance, after what Flavia is told was a trip around the world but was in fact a year in prison for associating with gangsters. Further financial troubles hit the family, and then on Christmas Eve her mother goes into labor and is left on death's door. Flavia remembers being told a fable her mother told her about praying to kneeling cows on Christmas Eve, and so she sets out to find one.

O'Brien was already a child star at the time, and in fact was pushing past that toward young adulthood by the time the film hit the screens (it was actually filmed in 1946). As with many child stars, adulthood wasn't as kind to O'Brien, and by the age of 11, when "Tenth Avenue Angel" was released, her most famous years were already behind her.

Those years included leading roles in the classics "Meet Me in St. Louis," "The Canterville Ghost" and "Music for Millions." All three were released in 1944, a fantastic run that earned her an Oscar in the now-defunct Special Award category for "outstanding child actress."

She starred in a few more notable features after 1948 -- most notably as Beth in 1949's "Little Women" -- but the roles diminished in size as time went on.

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