Jane Byrne, Chicago's first woman mayor, dies

CHICAGO (AP) — Jane Byrne, who capitalized on Chicago's slow reaction to a snowstorm to score one of the biggest election upsets in the city's history and become its first female mayor, died today. She was 80.

Byrne, whose four-year term brought festivals and filmmakers to Chicago but was also filled with upheaval at City Hall, died at a hospice in Chicago, said her daughter, Kathy.

Byrne famously beat Mayor Michael Bilandic in 1979 after his administration failed to adequately clear streets fast enough after a blizzard. But during her term, she was branded with nicknames such as "Calamity Jane" as she speedily fired and hired people in such top jobs as police superintendent and press secretary.

"It was chaos," Byrne herself acknowledged in a 2004 Chicago Tribune story, attributing many of the problems to her wresting power from the old boy Democratic machine that had ruled the city for decades. "Like the spaghetti in a pressure cooker, it was all over the ceiling."

Byrne was also credited with changing the feel of the city. She started the popular Taste of Chicago festival and initiated open-air farmers' markets.

She also helped draw national attention to the infamous Cabrini-Green public housing complex when she and her husband moved into an apartment there after a gang war killed 11 residents in three months in 1981. They stayed for three weeks.