Spiro Agnew was born Spiros Anagnostopoulos[1] in the Towson section of Baltimore County, Maryland to Theodore Spiros Anagnostopoulos[2] and Margaret Akers, a native of Virginia. His father emigrated from Gargalianoi, Greece to the United States in 1897 and owned a diner famous for its chicken souvlaki and spanakopita. He became a Baltimore Democratic ward leader and well known in the local Greek community. He was Theodore Agnew's only child; his mother had two children from an earlier marriage that left her a widow.