(CNN) -- Luci Baines Johnson was just 16 years old when she approached her father, President Johnson, with what she considered a reasonable request. 

Luci Baines Johnson, left, and her older sister, Lynda Bird, pose inside the White House in 1963. 

"I asked my father if we could have the Beatles come to play at the White House," she recalled. "I was very excited about it." 

His response? A decisive no, "without even any moment of trying to soften the blow," Johnson said in a recent phone interview. 

The president thought the move would be viewed as self-serving. His daughter, however, saw it as a chance to honor "a great talent" and strengthen ties between the United States and Great Britain -- not to mention a golden opportunity for her and her friends. 

"I could see how different sets of folks could have either perspective. And I suspect my father could see that too," she said. 

Luci Baines Johnson learned quickly of the scrutiny that came from being a first daughter. Her family moved into the White House in 1963, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

Johnson was catapulted into the exclusive fraternity of White House families and embraced what she describes as a role she landed simply by chance. That fraternity has most recently expanded to include President Obama's daughters, Sasha and Malia. 

"I was an eyewitness to history, over and over, during my father's five years in the White House. And I wasn't elected to that option. I had no qualifications that provided me that privilege except an accident of birth," she said. See famous first kids who grew up in the White House » 
What did she state she was a firsthand witness to?
"I was an eyewitness to history