Not only did the oldest daughter of two newspaper reporters become the first woman to serve as US attorney general, the Harvard Law School product would also go on to serve longer than any AG in the 20th century.

The Miami native died Monday at age 78 after a battle with Parkinson's disease, more than a decade after her 24-year political career ended with a failed gubernatorial bid.

Here is a quick look at a career punctuated by high-profile prosecutions and controversial tactics.

Child abuse prosecutions

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As Miami-Dade County state attorney, Reno earned a reputation as being tough on child abuse. But for all the cases she prosecuted -- including the 1984 Country Walk Babysitting Service case, which made headlines amid an era of national paranoia about sex abuse in day cares -- she came up relatively empty.

Defendants were acquitted or won their cases on appeal. The wife of Frank Fuster, the target in the Country Walk case, years later retracted her testimony in the case, then retracted the retraction, according to the PBS newsmagazine "Frontline."

Reno's record in these cases -- and her reticence regarding Country Walk -- prompted The St. Petersburg Times to print a critical editorial during her 2002 run for governor: "She pioneered a controversial technique for eliciting intimate details from young children and inspired passage of a law allowing them to testify by closed-circuit television, out of the possibly intimidating presence of their suspected molesters. It is open to dispute, however, whether this is a record of which she should be proud."

Waco siege

Photos: Waco Waco – On February 28, 1993, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tried to serve search and arrest warrants for allegedly illegal weapons at the Branch Davidian Christian compound near Waco, Texas. A gunbattle ensued followed by a seven-week standoff between church followers and FBI agents who had taken over the situation. Branch Davidian leader David Koresh refused to negotiate and when FBI forces moved in on April 19 with tear gas, a fire set the building ablaze. In total, 82 Branch Davidians, including 24 children, and four federal agents died. Above, the compound burns on April 19, 1993, after FBI agents moved in. Hide Caption 1 of 11 Photos: Waco Waco – ATF agents gather near a bomb truck on March 8, 1993, as they search a building for arms near the compound. Hide Caption 2 of 11 Photos: Waco Waco – Two M1 Abrams tanks sit in the underbrush about 200 yards from the Branch Davidian compound on March 10, 1993. Hide Caption 3 of 11 Photos: Waco Waco – Supporters of the ATF stand beside the turnoff to the Branch Davidian compound on March 28, 1993. Hide Caption 4 of 11 Photos: Waco Waco – Left to right: Branch Davidian members Kathryn Schroeder, Brad Branch and Kevin Whitecliff are escorted on April 1, 1993, by U.S. Marshals into a federal court to be arraigned on charges stemming from the February 28 shootout at the compound. Hide Caption 5 of 11 Photos: Waco Waco – FBI agents investigate a bunker that survived the blaze that leveled the rest of the compound on April 23, 1993. Hide Caption 6 of 11 Photos: Waco Waco – Andrew Williams holds up a sign depicting the scene at the Branch Davidian compound during a rally at the FBI Building in Washington on April 19, 1995. The rally was in remembrance of the Branch Davidians killed during the siege. Hide Caption 7 of 11 Photos: Waco Waco – Richard DeGuerin, lawyer for the late Koresh gestures as if firing a gun during his testimony before the Congressional panel inquiry into the incident in Texas on July 25, 1995. Hide Caption 8 of 11 Photos: Waco Waco – Then-Attorney General Janet Reno arrives to speak to a crowd of reporters at the Department of Justice on September 3, 1999, where she announced that she will name an independent investigator outside the Justice Department to look into questions surrounding the FBI's assault on the compound. Hide Caption 9 of 11 Photos: Waco Waco – A memorial stands at the site of the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco, Texas, on March 14, 2000. Hide Caption 10 of 11 Photos: Waco Waco – Fire survivor and Branch Davidian Sheila Martin walks away from a federal courthouse in Waco on June 19, 2000, during a break in the proceedings for a lawsuit filed against the government by survivors and family members of victims. Hide Caption 11 of 11

The West Texas standoff between the US government and David Koresh's Branch Davidians began a couple of weeks before Reno was named President Bill Clinton's attorney general, but Reno's Justice Department is responsible for bringing the siege to its violent close

Reno approved the raid on the compound that ended the 51-day standoff on April 19, 1993, resulting in the deaths of 82 Branch Davidians (24 of them children) and four federal agents.

Inquiries into the gunbattle and ensuing fire that consumed the compound dragged on for years. Conspiracy theories live on. Despite the controversy, Reno earned political points with a simple act of accountability, telling reporters , "I made the decision. I'm accountable. The buck stops with me."

Microsoft monopoly

Microsoft settled with the U.S. Justice Department in 2001.

In 1998, Reno's Justice Department went after Microsoft Corp., accusing it of committing monopolization by bundling its Internet Explorer browser and Windows operating system in an attempt to snuff out competition, namely Netscape.

"Consumers and computer manufacturers should have the right to choose the software they want installed on their personal computers," Reno said at the time. "We are acting to preserve competition and promote innovation in the computer software industry."

Microsoft and the Justice Department eventually reached a settlement in 2001 , after Reno's tenure as attorney general had ended.

Freemen standoff

Members of the Freemen holed up on a 960-acre ranch near Brusett, Montana, in 1996.

When 20 or so Freemen holed up in 1996 on a farm in Montana, determined to dodge charges of bank and credit card fraud, the memory of Waco still resonated in Reno's mind.

The standoff would endure 81 days and 42 negotiators, one of whom called the Freemen's escalating demands "sheer lunacy." On June 3, 1996, the FBI cut power to the farm, and the Freemen lasted 10 more days before surrendering

Nailing terrorists

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Kaczynski received multiple life sentences and remains incarcerated at a Supermax prison in Colorado. Yousef is serving life plus 240 years at the same facility. McVeigh and Kasi were executed.

Richard Jewell debacle

Photos: Terror attacks on U.S. soil Terror attacks on U.S. soil – A pair of bombs went off near the finish line of the packed Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, leaving three people dead. More than 200 people were wounded. One suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has been charged with 30 federal counts related to the attacks. His brother, Tamerlan, was killed during pursuit by police. Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: Terror attacks on U.S. soil In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Army, police take cover as Nidal Hasan opens fire in Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009. The Army psychiatrist was convicted of killing 13 people. Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: Terror attacks on U.S. soil A man stands near the rubble, asking if anyone needs help, after the collapse of one of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2011. In what was the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, 2,753 people were killed when two hijacked planes were intentionally crashed in the north and south towers of the New York buildings. Two other planes were also hijacked: One crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, and one crashed at a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: Terror attacks on U.S. soil Atlanta was the excited and elated host of the 1996 Summer Olympics when a bomb went off at Centennial Olympic Park on July 27. Two people were killed and 111 were injured by the blast. Eric Rudolph was convicted of placing the 40-pound bomb, which was filled with nails and screws. Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: Terror attacks on U.S. soil The north side of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City shows the devastation caused by a fuel-and-fertilizer truck bomb on April 19, 1995. At the time, it was the worst terror attack on U.S. soil, killing 168 people. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were convicted of the attack. Both were former U.S. Army soldiers associated with the militant Patriot Movement. Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: Terror attacks on U.S. soil A police photographer helps document the bombing of the underground parking garage at the World Trade Center. That bombing killed six people on February 26, 1993. Six suspects were convicted of participating in the bombing. The seventh suspect, Abdul Rahman Yasin, is still at large. Ramzi Yousef directed the organization and execution of the bombing. He said he did it to avenge the sufferings Palestinian people had endured at the hands of U.S.-aided Israel. Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: Terror attacks on U.S. soil Three people were killed and 23 others were wounded after a string of mail bombings carried out by Ted Kaczynski, aka "The Unabomber," from 1978 to 1995. Here, FBI agents guard the entrance to Kaczynski's property in Lincoln, Montana, on April 5, 1996. In May 1998, Kaczynski received eight life sentences for his crimes. Hide Caption 7 of 7

While Reno's Justice Department had much success in prosecuting terrorists, its handling of the Richard Jewell case made him the poster man for the wrongly accused.

Jewell was a security guard during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and when a pipe bomb exploded at the city's Centennial Olympic Park, killing two people and injuring 111 others, police were quick to suspect Jewell. The media followed suit, leading to months of unwarranted scrutiny.

The next year, Reno said she was "sorry it happened," and if given the chance to speak to Jewell face to face, she would say, "I'm sorry."

"I think we owe him an apology. I regret the leak," she said. Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to the bombing in 2005.

Reno v. ACLU

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled sections of the Communications Decency Act violated free speech.

In 1997, the ACLU and other groups challenged provisions of the Communications Decency Act that forbade sending or displaying to a person younger than 18 material "that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs."

When a district court ruled in favor of the ACLU, Reno was charged with appealing the decision to the US Supreme Court. It didn't go well.

All nine justices (two of whom dissented, in part) voted to strike down the provisions , saying they constituted a violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Elian Gonzalez

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The 6-year-old was on a rickety boat that capsized en route from Cuba to Florida, killing his mother. Relatives in Miami took the boy in, despite his father, back home in Cuba, demanding his son be returned.

Elian became the fodder of political demonstrations in both Cuba and Miami. Reno set a deadline, ordering Elian be returned to his dad. Nine days later, on April 22, 2000, federal agents entered the house and took the boy.

Reno later stood by the decision : "I will have peace in my heart and peace in my mind when everybody is home, wherever home will be, wherever the law leads us."

Contempt of Congress alleged

Attorney General Janet Reno testifies during a hearing on a 1996 campaign finance investigation on June 27, 2000, in Washington.

In 1998, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted to hold Reno in contempt of Congress for failing to hand over two key memos. Reno countered that the committee, namely its chairman, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Indiana, was playing "political football."

FBI director Louis Freeh and Charles LaBella of the Justice Department campaign finance task force had recommended Reno request an independent counsel to investigate the fundraising practices of the 1996 Bill Clinton-Al Gore campaign.

Burton subpoenaed both documents, but Reno said they contained secret grand jury material. She eventually handed them over. The House never followed up with a contempt vote of its own.

Brushes with Hollywood

Comedian Will Ferell's impression of Reno on "Saturday Night Live" prompted a former Justice Department spokesman to chime in: "Both in Florida and in Washington she has a great many friends whose homes she visits, and she goes to plays, her dance card is full. To portray her as a wallflower that nobody asks to dance is not only demeaning but inaccurate."