Lorraine Chargin, who with husband Don promoted boxing cards in California and beyond the past half century, died Tuesday after a battle with cancer. She was 79.

Chargin did a lot of the dirty work — working the ticket office, handling the media, overseeing building maintenance and much more — during the couple's long run at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, Sacramento and many other locations.

She was both tough, a requirement in the boxing business, and one of the warmest people in the sport. Everyone loved her.

She and Chargin had been together since 1957.

“I don't know what I'll do without my sweet Lorraine,” Don Chargin said. “I can't stop looking at her picture. The only comfort I have is knowing that my sweetheart is no longer suffering.”

Lorraine passed away at a hospital near the couple's home in Cambria, on the central coast of California. A memorial service for family and friends will be held their next Wednesday.