Contact the Burton Historical Collection (BHC) of the main Detroit Public Library to see if he appears on the City of Detroit death index. They also have some books with indexes of Wayne County deaths (excluding Detroit), which cover about 1934-1954. Ask them if they will look in both if he does not appear in the Detroit index. You can email the BHC from their website. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

http://www.detroit.lib.mi.us/featuredcollection/burton-histo...