HAMMOND | Festively swathed in red, white and blue, Hammond's Civic Center resonated Friday with history and possibly history in the making.

Thousands of supporters welcomed U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton to where another New York senator and presidential hopeful, Robert F. Kennedy, stood 40 years ago.

Gloria Dosen, 78, of East Chicago, recalled Kennedy's youth and charisma. "He knew how to work a crowd," she said.

Christine Russell, 51, was a child at the time of Kennedy's visit, but the image helped foster her lifelong political involvement, she said. Russell today serves as a precinct committeewoman in East Chicago.

As the state of Indiana served as a springboard for Kennedy's candidacy, it is today critical to Clinton's chance for the Democratic nomination.

Kennedy may be a fond memory, but many women and men said Friday they now have their hopes for a history-making event pinned on a woman.

While Clinton is not the first woman to run for the country's highest office, she is the first to come so near.

Clinton follows in the footsteps of Victoria Woodhull in 1872, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith in 1964 and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm in 1972.

"I like the sound of Hillary, Hammond and history," Clinton said. "This is a historic moment to reverse course."

Indicative of both the support and the curiosity surrounding Clinton, the line at the Civic Center queued up at 6:30 a.m., despite the cold.

Black, white, Hispanic, young, old, blue-collar and white-collar, they came from throughout Lake and Porter counties, joining the who's who of Lake County politics, saying they liked Clinton's talk of affordable health care and support of education.

Clinton later spoke of a young woman who, for lack of $100 at a hospital emergency room, first lost her baby and then her own life.

"Is that the America we love?" she asked the crowd.

But today's women also rank the widespread job loss in the region and the downward spiral of economic opportunity as a top priority.

"I am here to support Hillary," said Wanda Rys, 67, of Calumet City. "I think she's the only candidate truly interested in the economy and who knows how to get it done."

"I think she's the only one to get this economy going," said Carolyn Ballenger, 60, a Hammond school teacher from Gary's Miller Beach.

"I'm rooting for her, and I hope she goes all the way," said Vicky Ooms, a 37-year-old mother from Crown Point who's avidly for Clinton.

Swaddled in a blanket against the early morning cold, Ooms' daughter Natalia, 12, joined countless other children at the event, some kept home from school for the event.

Joey Balon, 17, of Highland, who will vote for the first time this year, accompanied his mother, Elizabeth Balon, 52.

The younger Balon said he was still uncommitted, but not his mother, who's staunchly pro-Clinton because of Clinton's being "a strong woman."

Clinton struck home on all fronts with Susan Cheeseman, 37, of Chesterton.

"My husband's an ironworker, so we know we need American steel to build here in the States," she said.

Cheeseman, a school counselor currently a full-time mom, said it is "absolutely awesome" that Clinton supports mandatory preschool and kindergarten.

In a news conference, Clinton also spoke to the burdens on American working families.

"I want to support the working family," she said. "I think we have to provide more child care support, which I have championed."