Rockford woman calls Obama pardon 'a blessing'

ROCKFORD. — A Rockford woman is calling her pardon by President Barack Obama "truly a blessing."

Obama granted the first pardons of his presidency Friday to nine people, including Floretta Leavy.

Leavy was sentenced in 1984 to a year in prison and three years of parole for drug offenses.

She told the Chicago Tribune that she feels "like one of God's angels" and the Rockford Register Star that she's in awe.

Leavy is retired from the U.S. Army. She's now an officer with the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs.

She says she just made a mistake along the way. She'd applied for a pardon in January 2007.

No one well-known was on the list of pardons. Presidential pardons often come in the holiday season toward year's-end.