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.
The woman also known as Bea Franco and to readers as "Terry, the Mexican girl" died Thursday in Lakewood of natural causes, family friend Tim Hernandez said Monday.
Kozera learned only a few years ago that her 15-day relationship with Kerouac in the farmworker labor camps of Selma in 1947 was featured in his famous Beat Generation novel and eventually a movie, Hernandez said.
Hernandez tracked down Kozera while he was researching her story for a book due to be released later this month called "Manana Means Heaven."