Janet Auchincloss Rutherfurd

Janet Jennings Auchincloss Rutherfurd (June 13, 1945 – March 13, 1985) was an American socialite, known for her family connections and personal career endeavors. She was born in New York City to Hugh D. Auchincloss Jr., a stockbroker, and Janet Auchincloss (née Lee), a socialite. Her full name was Janet Jennings Auchincloss, and she was commonly referred to as "Janet, Jr." Her middle name, Jennings, was in honor of her paternal grandmother, Emma Jennings.

She had a younger brother, James Lee (known as Jamie), born in 1947. Her maternal lineage included elder half-sisters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Caroline Lee (known as Lee) from her mother's first marriage to John "Black Jack" Bouvier III, a stockbroker. From her father's previous marriages, she had three elder half-siblings: Hugh Auchincloss III (1927–2015), Nina, and Thomas "Tommy" Auchincloss (born 1937).

In 1945, Janet Auchincloss was christened at St. John Episcopal Church in The Plains, Virginia, and was raised in the Episcopal faith. Her early education included attendance at the Potomac School located in McLean, Virginia, and Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, an institution also attended by her half-sisters Jacqueline and Lee. Subsequently, she attended Sarah Lawrence College to study music history but left in 1966 upon getting married.

Prior to her marriage, she briefly dated John Kerry, who would later become Secretary of State. On August 17, 1963, she was formally presented to society at a ball held at Hammersmith Farm, her childhood home in Newport, Rhode Island.

On July 30, 1966, Janet Auchincloss married Lewis Polk Rutherfurd, a recent Princeton University graduate and future financier. Lewis was the son of Winthrop Rutherfurd Jr., linked to Fishers Island, New York, and the grandson of Frank L. Polk, who served as Under Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson. He was also the great-grandson of Levi P. Morton, a former governor of New York and vice president of the United States under Benjamin Harrison.

The couple had three children: Lewis Stuyvesant Rutherfurd, Andrew Hugh Auchincloss Rutherfurd, and Alexandra Rutherfurd. In 1966, the Rutherfurds relocated to Hong Kong, where Janet Rutherfurd taught French at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for two years. She served as an adviser and stockholder for Inter-Asia Venture Management, a venture capital firm co-founded and managed by her husband. Additionally, she established an overseas chapter of the League of Women Voters.

In August 1984, Janet Rutherfurd was diagnosed with lung cancer. Despite undergoing aggressive treatments, the disease metastasized to her brain and pancreas. She died on March 13, 1985, at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, at the age of 39. Her funeral was held privately on March 19 at Trinity Church in Newport, Rhode Island; she was subsequently buried at the Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery.