Janet Auchincloss Rutherfurd

Janet Jennings Auchincloss
Born June 13, 1945
Died March 13, 1985 (aged 39)
Boston, Massachusetts
Education Potomac School
Miss Porter's School
Sarah Lawrence College
Spouse(s) Lewis Polk Rutherfurd
(m. 1966–1985; her death)
Children Lewis Stuyvesant Rutherfurd
Andrew Hugh Auchincloss Rutherfurd
Alexandra Rutherfurd
Parent(s) Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Jr.
Janet Norton Lee
Relatives
  • Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (half-sister)
  • Caroline Lee Bouvier (half-sister)
  • Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (half-niece)
  • Anthony Stanislaw Albert Radziwill (half-nephew)
  • Anna Christina Radziwill (half - niece)
  • John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. (half-nephew)
  • Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (half-nephew)

Janet Jennings Auchincloss (June 13, 1945 – March 13, 1985) was an American socialite. She was also the half-sister of First Lady Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Bouvier (1929–1994) and actress Carole Lee Bouvier (born 1933).

Janet was the daughter of stockbroker Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Jr. (1897–1976) and socialite Janet Norton Lee (1907–1989). Her younger brother is James Lee Auchincloss (born 1947). In addition to elder half-sisters Jackie and Lee from her mother's first marriage to stockbroker John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III, she had three elder half-siblings from her father's previous marriages: Hugh III (born 1927), Nina (born 1935), and Thomas (born 1937).

Janet Auchincloss made her debut in 1963. She studied at the Potomac School in McLean, Virginia, and Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, the alma mater of her half-sisters Jacqueline and Lee. She went on to study music history at Sarah Lawrence College. She briefly dated future Senator, Presidential candidate, and Secretary of State John Kerry.

On July 30, 1966, she married Lewis Polk Rutherfurd, a recent graduate of Princeton University and future financier. The couple moved to Hong Kong, where she later founded an overseas chapter of the League of Women Voters. They had three children:

Janet died of cancer at the age of 39 in a Boston hospital on March 13, 1985, with her half-sister Jackie by her side. Her husband later married Katharine duPont Sanger (grand-daughter of Lammot du Pont II) on June 10, 1989.

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