Editing Ted Knight (section)

== Early life ==
Knight was born in the [[Terryville, Connecticut|Terryville]] section of Plymouth in [[Litchfield County, Connecticut]] to [[Polish Americans|Polish-American]] parents Sophia (née Kavaleski) and Charles Walter Konopka, a bartender.<ref>{{Cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mFmAAAAMAAJ| title=Newsmakers| first=Peter M.| last=Gareffa| date=January 1, 1987| publisher=Gale Research| via=Google Books| isbn=978-0810322035}}</ref> He withdrew from high school to enlist in the [[United States Army]] during [[World War II]] and was a member of Company A, 296th Combat Engineer Battalion, earning five [[Service star|campaign stars]] while serving in the [[European Theater of Operations, United States Army|European Theater of Operations]].<ref name="battlestars">{{Cite web| url=http://www.billjerome.com/tedknight/hisdeath/bp_860827_we.html| title=Terryville Recalls Favorite Son Fondly| last=Paradis| first=John| newspaper=The Bristol Press| date=August 27, 1986| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204134424/http://www.billjerome.com/tedknight/hisdeath/bp_860827_we.html| archive-date=December 4, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal| title=Remembering Connecticut's Ted Knight of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'| url=https://patch.com/connecticut/durham/remembering-connecticut-s-ted-knight-of-the-mary-tyled724924d50| first=Philip R.| last=Devlin| journal=Durham Patch| date=December 14, 2011}}</ref>