Marija Butkevičienė was born in Pašatrija village in Samogitia in 1891. She began medical studies in Saint Petersburg, but the Russian Revolution forced her to interrupt them. After returning to Lithuania, she continued her studies in Kaunas and became one of the university’s first female medical graduates. She worked as a physician in private practice and later in clinics. In Kaunas, she was known as a gynaecologist.

Marija’s husband Pranas was a captain in the Lithuanian Army. The family lived on Molėtų Street in Žaliakalnis, Kaunas, and attended high-society balls of the period. The family remembered that, at one such ball, Marija danced with Lithuanian President Antanas Smetona.

Marija played the piano and taught not only her own children, Ona and Povilas, but others as well. The family loved books. Her grandson Gintaras remembered his grandmother saying, “Now I’ll read to you a little, then you’ll read to me…”

During the Nazi occupation, Marija Butkevičienė, her daughter Ona Butkevičiūtė and her son Povilas helped rescue Jews in Kaunas.

Marija had known Fruma Gurvič since her student days. In February 1944, at Fruma’s request, the Butkevičius family sheltered five-year-old Noemi, rescued from the Kaunas ghetto. The girl was secretly carried out of the ghetto in a potato sack and brought to the family’s home in Žaliakalnis.

Noemi was introduced as the daughter of a Lithuanian mother and a Georgian father. This helped explain her appearance and reduce suspicion. Hiding her endangered the entire family. A German officer also visited the Butkevičius home, but did not suspect Noemi’s true identity.

Marija’s children also helped rescue the girl. Her daughter Ona was then twenty-three, and her son Povilas about fifteen. The family cared for Noemi until the Nazi occupation ended.

After the war, Noemi moved to Israel. Marija remained in contact with Fruma Gurvič until her death.

Soviet repression also affected the family. In July 1945, her son Povilas was sentenced for his beliefs to ten years in prison and five years of exile. He was imprisoned but avoided exile, returning to Lithuania in 1955.

Marija Butkevičienė died in 1982.

On 28 August 1998, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance institution Yad Vashem recognized Marija Butkevičienė and her daughter Ona Butkevičiūtė-Griniuvienė as Righteous Among the Nations.