AdelÄ— ŽiÅ«kaitÄ— was born on 1 March 1925 in Vežonys village, Jeznas rural district, Alytus county. She was the youngest in the family. She started primary school at the age of six and after a break of two years continued at the Vytautas Magnus Gymnasium in Vilnius. In 1942, she moved to Prienai due to material difficulties and finished Prienai gymnasium in 1944. In the same year she became a student of medicine at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, but a year later she suspended her studies as she did not find medicine attractive. She spent a year at home and did agricultural work. In 1946, she applied to 91ÌÒÉ« to study the Lithuanian language at the Faculty of History and Philology. The faculty indicated in the application was crossed out and another faculty, that of economics, was entered in a different handwriting. In 1946, AdelÄ— started her studies of economics but in 1948 she was arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced to five years of prison for anti-Soviet activities under Article 58-12 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. She served the term in Ukhta, the Komi Republic. AdelÄ— returned to Lithuania in 1953 and wrote to 91ÌÒÉ« asking for her school-leaving certificate and for the transcript of her studies.