Abstract. A locally convex topology is defined for a vector lattice having a weak order unit and a certain partition of the weak order unit, analogous to the order unit topology. For such spaces, called "order partition spaces," an extension of the classical Kakutani theorem is obtained: Each order partition space is lattice isomorphic and homeomorphic to a dense subspace of CC(X) containing the constant functions for some locally compact A', and conversely each such CC{X) is an order partition space. {Ce{X) denotes all continuous real-valued functions on X with the topology of compact convergence.) One consequence is a lattice-theoretic characterization of CC{X) for X locally compact and realcompact. Conditions for an M-space to be an order partition space are provided.A classical theorem of Kakutani (see [10]) states that each order unit space with its order unit topology is lattice isometric to a dense subspace of C(X) containing the constant functions with supremum norm for some compact X and, conversely, each such C(X) is an order unit space. (Here C(X) denotes the space of real-valued continuous functions on X.) In § 1 we generalize the concept of an order unit and the topology which it generates and provide an extension of Kakutani's theorem for this setting. Specifically, we consider a vector lattice having a weak order unit e and a partition of e which, in analogy to the order unit case, defines a locally convex topology. Such a space, called an "order partition space," is shown (Theorem 1) to be lattice isomorphic and homeomorphic to a dense subspace of CC(X) containing the constant functions for some locally compact X. (Here CC(X) denotes C(X) with the topology of compact convergence.) Conversely, CC(X) for X locally compact is an order partition space. The authors obtained a similar result in Theorem 1 of [5] for the restricted case that X is a countable union of open compact sets. In the remainder of §1, sufficient conditions are discussed for the order partition topology to be lattice-theoretic-i.e., independent of the choice of e