 Ted " Teeder " Kennedy was born December 12 , 1925 , in the small village of Humberstone , Ontario , which in 1970 was amalgamated into the city of Port Colborne . Ted 's father , Gordon Kennedy , was killed in a hunting accident eleven days before he was born and his mother , Margaret , was left to raise a family of four children . To supplement her income she took a job selling confectioneries at a local hockey arena which became young Ted 's second home . When Ted was seven years old a family friend took him to Toronto to see the first two games of the 1932 Stanley Cup finals and from watching those games Maple Leaf right winger Charlie Conacher became his childhood hero . He wore Conacher 's No.9 throughout his minor hockey career . In Port Colborne , Kennedy was childhood friends with Elmer Iseler , who would find fame as a choir conductor and Don Gallinger who would find infamy when he was banned for life by the NHL for gambling while playing with the Boston Bruins in 1948 . 
