While some business was conducted, much of Thursday's annual meeting of Leggett and Platt shareholders was spent saying farewell to two directors with a combined 107 years with the company.

Felix Wright, chairman of the Leggett and Platt board of directors, led his last annual meeting in that capacity, and Harry Cornell Jr., chairman emeritus, also took part in his final meeting.

The two Leggett legends announced their intention to retire from the board back in February.

"Obviously there are mixed emotions, but a lot of happiness," Cornell said. "I'm tremendously grateful for everything the good Lord has bestowed on the company, and it's real gratifying to know how involved Leggett has been in growth in Southwest Missouri and Carthage. The biggest reward is being able to see the people and how they've progressed."

According to the company's bylaws, both men would have to seek a waiver to continue to serve because they are beyond Leggett's mandatory retirement age of 72. Cornell has been granted annual waivers of this rule for each of the past seven years.

Cornell is the grandson of company founder JP Leggett and joined the company in 1950. He hired Felix Wright in 1959 and Wright took over from Cornell as chairman of the board in 2002.

"Years and years ago, I used to refer it to passing the baton in company communication, and we still do that," Cornell said. "There was a good many years involved in the transition from me to Felix as CEO, I described it as having two bands on the baton on a race and towards the finish line, you let loose of it and I think that's exactly what Felix was explaining with David. There are many, many hands on the baton, so it is something of a seamless transition."

Company CEO David Haffner said Thursday was an emotional day for him and the company.

"It was a very emotional day," Haffner said. "In fact we had quite a round of more intimate sessions last night with just the board and senior management, at which point we showed a condensed version of these two men's total careers in about an 11-minute video. It was quite emotional quite honestly. As you can tell from my comments earlier, I'm so personally ties to both of these guys and being born and raised in Carthage as was Connie, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me."

Haffner said he will miss having both men in the office routinely, but both have committed to being available if needed.

"These fellows won't be on our board of directors any longer but they continue to be very significant shareholders and as a result of that we'll continue to enjoy the pleasure of their guidance and involvement," Haffner said. "Both of them have committed to me that they're simply a phone call away, so I intend to continue to utilize their knowledge of the industry that we serve."

In other business, shareholders elected as directors the 10 nominees proposed by the Board; ratified the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent registered public accountant for 2008; approved the amendment and restatement of the company's Flexible Stock Plan; and rejected a shareholder proposal regarding the company's non-discrimination policy.

The new chairman of the board, Richard Fisher, St. Louis, is senior managing director of the Midwest division of Oppenheimer and Co., in St. Louis.

"He's been on the board of directors since 1972," Haffner said. "He and Ted Enlow are the longest tenured directors with the exception of Harry. Richard knows this company, he knows the history of the company, he knows our senior management personally, he knows our strategic opportunities and I can't think of a more capable individual to serve as the chairman of our board of directors."

Haffner said Fisher becomes Leggett and Platt's first independent chairman of the board of directors.

"With the shift of public companies to using independent chairmen, we were in great shape by having such experienced people to take over," Haffner said. "He's our first independent chairman as a publicly traded company. He's from St. Louis and his background is primarily investment banking, brokerage and finance, and he's literally been a part of the financial engineering of the company since it went public. He's a very, very capable guy."