Homepage Slider with Multiple Queries for Most Recent/Featured Posts from Unique

I am working on creating a slider for a WordPress site I am building. The slider I am trying to build will have 4 total slides/frames. Each frame will need to display either the most recent post from a unique category or a featured post from a unique category. By this I mean that each of the 4 slides/frames will represent a separate category.

Slide/Frame 1 = Most Recent or Featured Post from Category A
Slide/Frame 2 = Most Recent or Featured Post from Category B
Slide/Frame 3 = Most Recent or Featured Post from Category C
Slide/Frame 4 = Most Recent or Featured Post from Category D

The layout/design of my slider will have 4 navigation icons/buttons at the top. Each of these icons/buttons will represent one of the categories. These can be used to navigate from slide/frame to slide/frame. Below the icons/buttons will be the Featured Image for the most recent/featured post. Below the Featured Image will be an image that represents the category (an image of the category name). Below that will be the Post Title followed by the Post Date (and possibly Post Excerpt).

LAYOUT:
Category A Icon/Button – Category B Icon/Button – Category C Icon/Button – Category D Icon/Button
Featured Image for Most Recent or Featured Post in Category
Image Representing the Category
Post Title
Post Date
Post Excerpt (maybe)

I believe I’ll need to create 4 different queries; one query for each slide/frame in the slider. Can anybody help me figure out how best to achieve what I am after?