Beatrice Kozera, inspiration for Jack Kerouac's 'Terry' in 'On the Road', dies at 92

BEATRICE Kozera, the woman whose fleeting relationship with novelist Jack Kerouac was chronicled in On the Road, has died. She was 92.

BEATRICE Kozera, the 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 on Monday the woman also known as Bea Franco and to readers as "Terry" died on Thursday in Lakewood of natural causes.

Mr 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. Mr 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.