Born Elinor Isabel Judefind in Baltimore, Maryland, to parents of French-German descent, Agnew was daughter of William Lee Judefind, a chemist, and his wife, the former Ruth Elinor Schafer. Her paternal grandfather was a Methodist minister. Agnew confessed in an interview with Parade magazine that her father had believed college education to be wasted on women, so in lieu of attending college, Agnew worked as a filing clerk. While working at the Maryland Casualty Company, she encountered Theodore Agnew, whom she called "Spiro". They had previously attended the same high school. After meeting again at the Maryland Casualty Company, the couple went to a movie on their first date together, and bought chocolate milkshakes afterward. Four months later, they became engaged.
Marriage to Spiro Agnew
She married Agnew on May 27, 1942, in Baltimore; he had graduated from Army Officer Candidate School two days earlier. They had four children: Pamela LeeAgnew, James Rand Agnew, Susan Scott Agnew, and Elinor Kimberly Agnew. While living in Annapolis with her husband and their four children, Agnew served as the president of her local PTA, and volunteered as both an assistant Girl Scout troop leader and a board member of the Kiwanis Club women's auxiliary. When speaking to the press, Agnew spoke in what she called a "Baltimorese" accent. She became known by the local press for serving cocktails in glass peanut butter jars, although she once publicly attempted to refute this claim. She was the First Lady of Maryland from January 1967 to January 1969.
Reportedly, Agnew's reaction to Richard Nixon naming her husband as his running mate was a tearful, "can you get out of it?" When asked by the press what she thought of her husband's new position, she told several publications that she was "just trying to keep the ashtrays clean." In 1969, Agnew hosted a dinner at the White House for seventy-five female reporters. Her husband played piano for the guests and left before the meal was served. Agnew preferred to avoid political conversations in the press while serving as Second Lady. In 1967, Agnew told The Evening Sun, "I'll still make brief remarks, at luncheons and teas and so on, but I'm not a speech maker. I'm not a real campaigner." In 1970, she told Parade magazine, "I stay out of the political end of it. When people ask what I majored in, I proudly tell them 'I majored in marriage.'" However, Agnew did make several political statements while her husband was in office. In 1971, she was quoted as calling feminists "silly," stating that she was already liberated. McCall's magazine published a letter from a feminist reader in response to Agnew's comments, saying she had "set Women's Lib back a hundred years". Agnew also told The New York Times that she had "no use" for hippies, although she admitted that she didn't know any. In 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned from his position as Vice President of the United States, pleading nolo contendere to charges of income tax evasion. Agnew was charged with having reported a joint income of $26,099 for both him and his wife in 1967, although their correct income had been $55,599. On the day of her husband's resignation, Agnew broke down at a luncheon and cried among her guests. On September 16, 1996, her husband collapsed. He died of leukemia the following evening, at the age of 77. Agnew died on June 20, 2012, in Rancho Mirage, California, aged 91.
