Golden West meeting is end of an era.

(From AFX UK (Focus))

OAKLAND, Calif. (AFX) - Golden West Financial Corp. shareholders approved the company's sale to Wachovia Corp. Thursday, moving a step closer to ending the 43-year reign of the savings and loan's folksy co-chief executives, Herb and Marion Sandler -- the only married couple running a Fortune 500 business.

Their quaint odyssey began in 1963 when Herb and Marion moved from New York to buy a two-branch thrift in the San Francisco Bay area for $4 million and vowed to maintain a personal touch even as Golden West's main franchise -- World Savings and Loan -- grew into an industry powerhouse.

That homespun feel remained evident Thursday as a couple dozen shareholders gathered in a small room at Golden West's Oakland headquarters to snack on cookies and listen to the Sandlers address them for a final time.

"Isn't that neat?" said longtime shareholder Phyliss Linton Peterson of San Leandro, Calif. as she watched Herb tease Marion before Thursday's meeting started. "It's like watching mom and dad."

The sale to Wachovia, currently valued at about $24 billion, is expected to completed in October, contingent on regulatory approval. Wachovia shareholders also approved the deal Thursday in a separate meeting held a few hours before Golden West's.

The acquisition will establish Charlotte, N.C-based Wachovia as a more formidable force in California and several other western states as it snaps up the nearly 300 branches and $134 billion assets held by the World Savings franchise.