Joana Lukaitė was born in a peasant’s family in Šašaičiai village, Kretinga rural district, Kretinga county. In 1940, Joana Lukaitė finished primary school in Jokubavas and continued at the gymnasium of Kretinga, which she finished in 1946. In the same year she became a student at the Stomatology Department of the medical faculty of Vilnius University. Deportation ended her studies: like many thousands of Lithuanians, in March 1949 Joana was deported to Boguchany district of Irkutsk region. She was released from exile in 1955. Upon return, she took advantage of the repatriation of the Polish nationals from the USSR to Poland and left Lithuania.