New York is a big place. If you can narrow it down to town or county, that might help. Some city directories/phone books might be available for those locations. If the people in question were born 1917 or earlier, you can post the names and information here.
If you have men of the right age, you may be able to find their WWII draft registration card (available at
www.familysearch.org) from 1942.
The Social Security death index (available for free at familysearch.org) has most deaths and begins roughly in the early 1960's.
There are some links to post-1940 death indexes and other death information here -
http://www.deathindexes.com/newyork/index.html
