Is it possible to witness a star's death?
Naked eye nova are fairly common, several per year. Here's one.
Naked eye supernova are far rarer. SN1987a in the large Magellanic cloud was naked eye visible (vid). From this list, it appears the supernova in 1987 was the most recent naked eye supernova. 
There was a naked eye gamma ray burst in 2008, but I don't think anyone actually got outside in time to see it.

If you have 50 years to look at the stars, you might see a supernova. 
If you have a small telescope, you can pick them up pretty regularly in nearby galaxies.