I'm late, but there are easy ways to check. I know you can enter a person's
name, location, and date of birth (approx.) and go to the Social Security Death Index site (through rootsweb.com) and it will give you date of death if deceased. Used to be ssdi.gov, but that no longer exists. Email me at dawndo4 at graffiti dot net and I can help if you still need it.
Cheez, I didn't know you did genealogy! I knew Melissa did, as we have "talked" before. Small world!