Oh, yes, it's still possible to learn something by heart when one is seventy, the memory doesn't fail in all ways.

She tried to remember what he looked like but her memory failed her.

"I may be senior as hell, but my memory isn't failing me quite yet."

Not so long past that your memory should fail you.

My memory failed me, or I should have been able to foretell it.

And, even worse, your memory fails you, especially about the important stuff.

The former is rare and beautiful, for the memory of it fails us.

How stupid it is to say that the memory fails with the approach of old age.

Yes, bazzarti, I will never live it down but memory just failed me.

Ask me the color of the tile, and my memory fails.