Beatrice Kozera, girl in Kerouac book, dies at 92

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Beatrice Kozera, the Los Angeles-born woman whose fleeting relationship with novelist Jack Kerouac was chronicled in "On the Road," has died. She was 92.

Tim Hernandez, a friend of Kozera's family, said Monday the woman also known as Bea Franco and to readers as "Terry" died Thursday in Lakewood of natural causes.

Hernandez says Kozera learned when she was 90 years old that her 15-day relationship with Kerouac was featured in his famous Beat Generation novel. Hernandez says he tracked her down while he was researching her story for a book due to be published later this month.

Kozera spent most of her early years following her farmworker family in California's fields and eventually settled in Fresno.