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In politics, there are show horses and workhorses.

Candidates and party bosses are the ones reporters seek out for quotes, the ones asked to keynote political events, and the ones whose pictures are splashed on campaign signs, making them household names.

They are the ones who, when they die, warrant a news story besides a regular obituary.

Then there are politicos such as Elly Muth. They are the ones who devote their lives to the details of partisan politics. They are the ones who make a political machine — whether it be a party, a PAC or a campaign team — hum along and work.

Eleanor Goshgarian Muth died Saturday at age 78 after multiple bouts with cancer. Most readers would not recognize her name. But I fielded several calls from lifelong Republican operatives suggesting that this workhorse deserves special mention.

Reared on a farm by a single father, Muth enjoyed a 28-year career in top management positions for J.C. Penney. She also worked in advertising and for a mining company.

But she was most proud of her volunteer work, serving with such organizations as Junior Miss, Utah Youth Village, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Eye Care 4 Kids, Utah Scholastic Associates and the Assistance League of Salt Lake City, for which she served as president.

She was a fixture inside the Utah Republican Party, where she had a penchant for political mavericks.

Muth was a staunch ally of longtime political figure Merrill Cook, fighting for him during his multiple campaigns through the years, which he usually lost.

When Cook won a seat in Congress in 1996, Muth became his public relations director. She also served as administrative assistant for former Salt Lake County Council member Steve Harmsen, another maverick, after she managed his successful campaign.

Folks I talked to about Muth this week — including former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, former State Republican Party Chairman Thomas Wright and political strategist Chuck Warren — had a consistent theme: Once Elly Muth became your friend, she was your friend for life.

"Pity the person who said anything bad about Merrill Cook in the presence of Elly Muth," said one admirer.

Warren said he once confronted Muth after he heard she was saying critical things about him in GOP circles. They had a long, frank, difficult discussion, he said. "When it was over, we hugged and have been great friends ever since."

Another great friend of Muth was state Sen. Jim Dabakis, a former chairman of the Utah Democratic Party and the only openly gay member of the Utah Senate, making him what she always was drawn to — a bit of a maverick.

They became friends about 20 years ago when she called him up to scold him for something he had said on the radio.

"We met for coffee and have been great friends ever since," Dabakis said. "I'm not exactly a favorite among Republicans, but nobody could say anything bad about me when Elly was around."

He visited her shortly before she died, and she spent the time telling him what a great man Donald Trump is and how she hoped he would become president.

Dabakis chuckled at that, because, clear to the end, there she was, going for another maverick.