When Mary Lincoln was a little girl, she idolized her father’s close friend Henry Clay, a three-time candidate for president.

Clay promised her that she could come to the Executive Mansion if he were elected.

He never was, and he died before Mary could invite him to be her guest.

She never forgot the goal, though. When the Lincoln’s moved into the Executive Mansion, Mary stood in the doorway of the opulent Blue Room and exclaimed, “It’s mine, my very own! At last, it’s mine!”

Sources: Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, History Cooperative.org