Is Steve Rogers dead?

Question

Very minor The Falcon and the Winter Soldier spoilers and major Endgame spoilers

I feel like we're probably not supposed to know the answer to this, but I'm curious if there is anything that is definite here.

At the end of Endgame, Steve lives his life out in the 40's with Peggy, returning to the present as an old man and passing his shield on to Sam. This is the last we see of him. In TFATWS, which takes place fairly recently after the events of Endgame, according to the director, Steve is referred to as being "gone." There was speculation from the trailer that the scene from episode 1 would be at his funeral, but it was not. I was wondering, when Sam ambiguously said that Steve was "gone," if this meant that he was dead, but nothing was set in stone.

Sam and Bucky talked more about Steve in episode 5, still referring to him as "gone." I've heard people theorizing that Steve is just in a retirement home somewhere, but if this is the case it's interesting that he's had absolutely no contact with his old friends, especially Bucky, who is going through so much.

My theory is that Marvel just doesn't want to confirm Steve as being dead, but all signs seem to point there. Is there any sort of confirmation on this topic?

Answer 1

The fact of the matter is we don’t know whether Steve is alive or dead at this moment on time. The best we get in universe is the following:

Sam and Bucky both refer to him as “gone”

I know you state this yourself but it’s important information. Gone could mean “back to the other timeline” (if he did timeline skip), retired, in hiding, too old to work or dead. We don’t know anything further than gone.

In Memoriam

In Spider-Man: Far From Home the poorly edited In Memoriam clip includes Tony, Nat and Steve. I wouldn’t read too much into this though. At this point public perception might not necessarily reflect what actually happened, especially if he did timeline skip. And even if he’s retired Captain America is still gone so it would still make sense to include him.

Retired?

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly in the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier at the exhibit we see a board with the title “A Final Mission”. The words are hidden in the background and quite hidden, however, we can sort of make out the following:

The Vanished resulted in the disappearance of half of all life in the universe, Men and women, dogs and cats, rich and poor [...] volunteering as a grief counsellor in his native New York, but even the eternal optimism and symbolic hope of Captain America seemed unable to overcome the irreconcilable loss.

After five years of drifting, Captain America and the remaining Avengers were able to regroup with a new plan to undo the damage inflicted by the mad Titan known as Thanos. This time Steve Rogers and the team were successful and able to {unclear} that had vanished, but with great personal loss.

With the death of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers honoured his friend by finally retiring and laying down the shield: enjoying the world he had fought so hard to protect. With this exhibit we honour the life and legacy of Steve Rogers, Captain America: patriot, soldier, hero.

Answer 2

There’s no clear indication that Steve Rogers is actually dead, and Bruce Banner suggests that he may still be alive as of the events of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 1.

Jennifer Walters, the protagonist of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, believes that Steve Rogers is dead and mentions this in various dialogues in the first episode, “A Normal Amount of Rage”. She uses the past tense "was" to refer to Steve, reflecting the general perception about Steve's purported demise as mentioned in this answer.

However, Bruce Banner, Steve's co-Avenger and friend, uses the present tense “is” to refer to Steve in conversation with Jennifer, suggesting that he knows Steve is still alive.

Dialogue from the first episode, where Jennifer and Bruce discuss Steve Rogers (note the usage of “was/is” by Jennifer and Bruce) (emphasis mine):

Jennifer: Obviously, Captain America was a virgin.

Post-credits scene:

Jennifer: [Drunk crying] It's just so sad. Steve Rogers did so much for his country and he never got to experience sex.
[Crying] Did you see that ass? Like, that ass did not [Cries] deserve to die a virgin. It's, like, so sad.

Bruce: Steve Rogers is not a virgin. He lost his virginity to a girl in 1943 on the USO tour.