Monroe was born in Uvalde, Texas, in 1928. He and his four sisters and two brothers were raised on several West Texas ranches, and from a very early age, Monroe was put on a horse with a rope in hand.
By his early teens, he was cowboying for many ranchers around Big Spring, Texas. Doctoring hundreds of calves and sheep in the pasture was a daily job. He was fortunate to be mentored by rancher Vance Davis and Lester Davis. As he progressed with his roping skills, he worked with Toots Mansfield, Sonny Evans, and Dan Taylor.
In 1949, he married Maurine Douthit. They ranched and traveled the rodeo circuit for many years with their children, daughter Bertha Jean, and son Edward.
Soon after their marriage, they moved to a ranch south of Midland owned by Leonard Proctor, which consisted of 100 sections (100 square miles), taking care of sheep and cattle. This work provided him time to train horses with good running, stopping, and getting back on the rope no matter what kind of ground they were on. For many years, he pursued training horses for others and working on several ranches in New Mexico. He had begun to develop a reputation for riding good horses and training those that had difficult problems.
He joined the Turtle Rodeo Association in the ’40s, which later became the Rodeo Cowboys Association, and he became a member in the 1950s, now known as the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Monroe’s rodeo career spanned over five decades. He competed in calf roping, bull dogging, steer roping, and team roping. He also worked as a pick-up man for Everett Coburn, Harry Knight, Butler Brothers, Tommy Steiner, and others at all major rodeos across the United States.
He received numerous roping event checks and many All-Around awards across the country.
Monroe presently manages a ranch in North Texas for R. E. Odom and still finds time to train a few horses and compete in team roping. He is often available to teach a few skills to younger contestants and sell a few great horses that will take one to the big league of professional competition.
