She was hired as a model by Joe Shuster, the comic-book artist who, along with writer Jerry Siegel, was developing the character of Superman. The facial features and hairstyle of Lois Lane were based on her.
After WWII, she met Jerry Siegel again at a fund-raiser for cartoonists. They married in 1948.
Her Hungarian parents named her Jolan, pronounced YO-lan. Teachers and classmates who couldn't (or wouldn't) pronounce it correctly called her Joanne instead. She eventually adopted that name.