FLORRISANT, Mo. A visitor to Marilyn Starling's two-bedroom unit in an assisted living facility in this St. Louis suburb is immediately struck by her creative use of space. "I keep as much as I can down in my storage unit in the basement, so there's not so much clutter," she says with a smile. "I want to be surrounded by the things I love, and the things I don't need I want out of sight."

So it is no surprise that she has given pride of pace in her front parlor to Claude Starling, her first husband, who passed away two years ago. "He was so good to me—I couldn't bear to put him in the cold, cold ground," she says as she uses a tissue to dab at tears forming in her eyes.

Marilyn consulted with Show-Me Taxidermists when Claude's kidneys began to fail, and they took delivery of the body as soon as Marilyn made the decision to pull the plug on her long-time spouse's life support. "His room was costing us $300 a day—that would pay the rent on a cold storage locker for a year," she notes. "Claude taught me to be thrifty—he would've wanted it that way."

Using state-of-the-art techniques, Clell Furnell, a master taxidermist with over three decades of experience stuffing raccoons, squirrels, deer heads and fish, turned Claude into a multi-purpose decorating showpiece.

The deceased insurance salesman's outstretched palm is where Marilyn leaves her keys so they're handy when she has to run to the store for groceries or denture adhesive. "I havf problemf thumtimef wiff my upper bridge," she says as she makes an adjustment that enables this reporter to understand her better.

Atop Claude's head is a plastic rain hat that Marilyn, a spry 75 year-old ("Don't put that in your article," she snaps) uses to keep her permanent wave and blue hair coloring looking new between her bi-weekly appointments at the Dainty Dot Beauty Salon. "There's no way I can get a refund if I get doused."

Marilyn stays active with other seniors at her complex, playing shuffleboard and bridge several times a week. She's even begun to date again now that a respectable period of time has passed since she lost Claude. Does Claude's looming presence at her threshold deter potential suitors, she is asked.

This is cache, read story here