Mayor Francis Slay — one of the area’s earliest and most prominent Hillary Clinton supporters — provided new details yesterday on the unity session he and other erstwhile Clinton backers had with Barack Obama.

As our chief political corespondent Jo Mannies wrote earlier, Obama’s downtown fundraiser on Monday offered an opportunity to extend — and accept — an olive branch from those that had endorsed his rival for the Democratic nomination.

As Slay tells it, Obama met with several Clinton supporters — including former Gov. Bob Holden and State Rep. Rachel Storch — in a small room before going out on the main stage.

“He said, ‘Look,’,” Slay recalled Tuesday, “‘I want you to know I appreciate your support for me and I’m looking forward to supporting your efforts here in St. Louis.’ That’s what he said.”

Slay is going to the Democratic convention in Denver as a pledged delegate to Clinton, but said he would follow her lead in throwing the support behind Obama.