Half-Sister of Jacqueline Onassis Dies

A private funeral service for Janet Jennings Auchincloss Rutherford, half-sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, was held here Tuesday.

Mrs. Rutherford, daughter of Janet Lee Bouvier Auchincloss Morris and the late Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, died in Boston on March 13 of lung cancer. She was 39.

Mrs. Morris, who is 77, is Mrs. Onassis’ mother, while Auchincloss was her stepfather.

Mrs. Rutherford graduated from Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Conn., in 1963 and studied music history at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., until 1966.

She left school to marry international financier Lewis Polk Rutherford. Her wedding at St. Mary’s Church in Newport--where in 1953 Jacqueline Bouvier married Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy--attracted 5,000 people.

After her marriage, the Rutherfords moved to Hong Kong, where she taught French at Chinese University until 1968. She was a shareholder and adviser in her husband’s venture capital company, Inter-Asia Management Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong.

In 1979, she helped found the first overseas chapter of the League of Women Voters in Hong Kong and was its honorary president at the time of her death.

When she was stricken with cancer last August, Mrs. Rutherford returned to her home at Westwood, Mass.

She was frequently visited by her half-sister during her illness, and Mrs. Onassis spent the last week at her bedside, according to a family friend who asked not to be identified.

After the funeral, Mrs. Onassis rode to the burial ground with her sister, Princess Lee Radziwill. Also among the 80 mourners at the ceremony at Trinity Church were the former First Lady’s children, Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr.

Mrs. Rutherford is survived by her husband, two sons, Lewis and Andrew, and a daughter, Alexandra.