Editing Spiro Agnew (section)

===Final years and death===
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?65348-1/spiro-agnew-bust-unveiling Spiro Agnew bust unveiling, U.S. Capitol building, May 24, 1995], [[C-SPAN]]}}
For the remainder of his life, Agnew kept distant from news media and Washington politics. Stating he felt "totally abandoned", Agnew declined to take any and all phone calls from President Nixon.<ref>{{Cite web|title=U.S. Senate: Spiro T. Agnew, 39th Vice President (1969–1973)|url=https://www.senate.gov/about/officers-staff/vice-president/VP_Spiro_Agnew.htm|access-date=March 7, 2021|website=www.senate.gov}}</ref> When Nixon died in 1994, his daughters invited Agnew to attend the funeral at [[Yorba Linda, California]]. At first he refused, still bitter over how he had been treated by the White House in his final days as vice president; over the years he had rejected various overtures from the Nixon camp to mend fences. He was persuaded to accept the invitation, and received a warm welcome there from his former colleagues.{{sfn|Coffey|2015|pp=205–206}} "I decided after twenty years of resentment to put it aside", he said.{{sfn|Witcover|2007|p=362}} A year later, Agnew appeared at the Capitol in Washington for the dedication of a bust of him, to be placed with [[United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection|those of other vice presidents]]. Agnew commented: "I am not blind or deaf to the fact that some people feel that ... the Senate by commissioning this bust is giving me an honor I don't deserve. I would remind these people that ... this ceremony has less to do with Spiro Agnew than with the office I held".{{sfn|Coffey|2015|p=206}}

On September 16, 1996, Agnew collapsed at his summer home in Ocean City, Maryland. He was taken to Atlantic General Hospital in [[Berlin, Maryland]], where he died the following evening. The cause of death was undiagnosed [[acute leukemia]]. Agnew remained fit and active into his seventies, playing golf and tennis regularly, and was scheduled to play tennis with a friend on the day of his death. The funeral, at [[Timonium, Maryland]], was mainly confined to family; Buchanan and some of Agnew's former Secret Service detail also attended to pay their final respects.{{sfn|Coffey|2015|p=206}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Bart |date=September 18, 1996 |title=Nixon Vice President Spiro T. Agnew Dies |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1996/09/19/nixon-vice-president-spiro-t-agnew-dies/6616ed01-311a-4b13-8051-dd0ce3782552/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001032031/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1996/09/19/nixon-vice-president-spiro-t-agnew-dies/6616ed01-311a-4b13-8051-dd0ce3782552/ |archive-date=October 1, 2017 |access-date=September 26, 2017 |work=The Washington Post}}</ref> In recognition of his service as vice president and combat Veteran, an honor guard of the combined military services fired a rifle volley at the graveside.<ref>{{cite news |title=Spiro Agnew is Buried With Almost No Fanfare |url=http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/19960922/news/309229970 |newspaper=[[The Standard-Times (New Bedford)|The Standard-Times]] |location=New Bedford, Mass. |agency=Associated Press |date=September 22, 1996 |access-date=September 7, 2017 |archive-date=September 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907213356/http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/19960922/news/309229970 |url-status=live }}</ref> Agnew's wife Judith survived him by 16 years, dying at Rancho Mirage on June 20, 2012.<ref name=Judith/>