"If there was a motor in it, he'd been on it," said his brother, Chris Monroe. Sunday, Rex Monroe took his last ride. On the Illinois River, in an area notorious for strong currents, he fell off a Jet Ski and drowned. The lifeless Peorian was pulled from the river by rescue personnel. He was not wearing a lifejacket. "He wasn't a safety-precaution taker," Chris Monroe said. "He didn't wear helmets on bikes either. That wasn't him. That was part of the thrill." He said the Sunday mishap marked yet another intense and tumultuous episode of his brother's oft-rough-and-tumble 49 years.