Beatrice Kozera, girl in Kerouac book, dies at 92
Aug 19, 2013, 8:18 PM
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.
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