Petronėlė Buožienė, née Žalytė, was born around 1894 into the family of Antanas Žalis and Marcijona Keinytė. On 22 February 1927 she married Vincentas Buožis at Žemalė Church. At the time of their marriage Petronėlė was 32 and Vincentas 31. Vincentas was a farmer living in Račiai village, Žemalė parish.

During the Second World War, Petronėlė and her husband Vincentas Buožis were among the families who helped Ela Geimanaitė, later Šapirienė, survive.

Before the war Ela lived in Nevarėnai with her parents, sisters and brothers. After the Nazi occupation began, the family was driven to the Viešvėnai camp. Ela's father and brothers were murdered, while Ela, her sister Dora and their mother were taken to the Geruliai camp. The girls were sent to work for local farmers and shared the food they earned with their mother. Their mother was later murdered as well.

Ela and Dora escaped and for a time hid with Uršulė and Konstantinas Žutautas in Dadotkai village, then with Stanislava and Raimondas Buknius in Užpelkiai. When it became dangerous there too, Stanislava Buknienė turned to her relative Petronėlė Buožienė. Petronėlė agreed to take Ela in.

In the Buožis home Ela was able to live relatively openly and was introduced to neighbours as a distant relative. Her appearance and circumstances helped: Ela was fair-haired and spoke Lithuanian well.

Ela left one of her warmest memories of her rescuers about Petronėlė. She called her “a person with a heart of gold.” Ela remembered a very specific detail of everyday life: Petronėlė tried to give her the better portions of food and told her that the girl no longer had a mother to love and care for her.

This detail says much about Petronėlė's relationship with the rescued girl. In the Buožis home Ela was not merely hidden from her persecutors; she was cared for as a young person who had lost her family.

But danger eventually reached the Buožis family as well. Rumours spread that a Jewish girl was being hidden in their home. Realising that both Ela's life and the family itself were in immediate danger, Petronėlė personally took Ela to her sister Ona Gelžinienė in Žibikai village. There Ona and Jonas Gelžinis continued to shelter her, and Ela survived until the end of the war.